


The kitten, his princess and cookies

by just_kiss_already_darlings



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Aged Up, F/M, FEED HIM HUG HIM LOVE HIM, Gabriel Agreste is a full time bag of dicks, Gen, Protect Adrien at all costs he's too pure, a touch of crack, crams in tropes like they're going out of style, i am always open to suggestions btw, i could not keep my trash self away, my children have grown up fine and strong, really frikin strong hot damn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-07
Updated: 2017-03-07
Packaged: 2018-06-06 23:41:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 59,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6774967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/just_kiss_already_darlings/pseuds/just_kiss_already_darlings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An akuma attacks near the bakery and Marinette finds herself with a visitor that just keeps coming back, not that she's going to be the one to complain.</p><p>(Also known as that one fic where Marinette stabs an akuma in front of Adrien with no remorse)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Marinette Dupain-Cheng was out on her balcony when it happened. She’d been watering the plants, a collection of sweet smelling flowers and herbs, when she heard a scream from outside of the bakery family owned. It was the type of scream that she’d found herself well acquainted with over the last few years, the type of scream that was usually accompanied by a super powered akuma. She’d never had an akuma attack so close to her home before, not in all the four years since they’d first started happening. 

 

Marinette Dupain-Cheng may just be an aspiring fashion designer and bakers’ daughter, but she was also Ladybug, well-loved superhero and protector of Paris. She really should go back indoors, call out her kwami, Tikki, and transform into her alter ego.

 

The problem was, there appeared to be a black cat standing between her and the way back inside. He was looking at her with the kind of smug look that only the peskiest of felines could achieve. Of course Chat Noir would choose _her_ balcony to land on. There were plenty of others he could have chosen, one or two were even closer to where the noise was coming from. Maybe once he moved on to deal with the akuma she could sneak back in and…

 

“Purr-incess~!” The inconveniently placed cat chimed. Oh, right, he was talking to her. She tried her best to look like she was listening and not like she was trying to edge her way around him. She trusted Chat with her life, but neither of them knew who the other was out of costume. “There’s an akuma nearby, you should get to safety.”

 

“Oh, of course! I’ll just go inside and wait it out…” She smiled brightly at him, radiating her usual half bubbly, half skittish Marinette aura, using the slightly lame excuse to shuffle past and get to her room at last, though she was stopped in her tracks when a hand clamped firmly around her arm.

 

“Stay safe, I’ll come check up on you after we’ve dealt with this guy.” He jerked a thumb in the vague direction of the akuma, completely oblivious to Marinettes’ growing unease and confusion. He took his staff, making a show of saluting her as he launched himself in the direction of the akuma. That was a relatively painless experience. Marinette hadn’t noticed while he’d been standing there, but there hadn’t been any more screams, not since the first one that she’d heard. Instead, she could hear a low droning that only seemed to be getting louder the longer she waited. That… probably wasn’t good.

 

She needed to transform and get out there, Chat was good, great even and certainly more than capable of holding his own without her in a fight, but they were a team, a duo, and she, _ladybug_ , was the only one who could purify an akuma.

 

Thankfully, Tikki was waiting for her by the window, ready and waiting to go. She’d been discretely watching from the window waiting for Marinette to come back inside, having heard the scream just as clearly as Marinette had. Chats sudden appearance had surprised them both.

 

“Tikki, spots on!” It was a good thing Chat was long gone already, the pink sparkles and flashing light that accompanied her transformation would have been a dead giveaway if he’d been within eyeshot. All that was left to do was to take down the akuma, fix whatever damage it caused with the miraculous cure, transform back and carry on with her life. She’d have to distract Chat somehow to give her time to get back in before he decided to go check on his ‘princess’ only to find she wasn’t there. Knowing that silly cat, he’d probably panic and think she fell off the roof or something equally as drastic. She was clumsy, but not quite that clumsy. She huffed a fond little sigh at the hypothetical situation. That really would be just like him.

 

The akuma had moved further down the street by the time Ladybug caught up to it. He was wearing a garish, brightly coloured hat with semi-realistic rotor blades on, his whole outfit was reminiscent of a helicopter. Akumas had the oddest themes sometimes. The low droning noise from earlier had evidently come from the swarm of model planes, helicopters and various other vehicles that followed in his wake. That explained the costume at least.

 

“I am the RemoteController! I’ll turn you all into my toys!” Ah, maniacal laughter. A week in the life of a superhero wasn’t complete without it. Now that she thought about it, he seemed a little familiar. Perhaps he was the man she’d passed on the way home from school who’d been flying a neat looking toy helicopter around the park. He was always there on weekdays. She wondered what could have happened to make him turn into an akuma.

 

“Ladybug!” Chat dropped down beside her, batting away a particularly insistent plane without so much as looking. “The akuma’s in the controller.” He practically beamed with pride at the observation, ladybug had to stop herself from rolling her eyes. Let the cat be happy with himself.

 

The fight went like so many others before it, a cataclysm here and a lucky charm there and bam, the akuma was gone (give or take a few awful puns from both the akuma and Chat). It turned out that some kids had teased the man and made him drop the controller, which in turn made his helicopter crash and break. Chat seemed more distracted than usual when they did their customary fist bump. She hastily reached out and caught him by the shoulder before he could run off.

 

“Everything alright there Chat?”

 

“Yup, I just have… some business! To take care of. Yeah. I should go do that. The business. That I need to… take care of.” Even if she hadn’t known exactly what the ‘business’ was, there was no way that she wouldn’t have been at least a little suspicious of that performance. She hid a giggle behind her free hand, releasing his shoulder at the same time as both their miraculous chimed with a set of soft beeps. She came up with a plan on the spot that would give her that extra bit of time to be Marinette again before he came to check up on her. She’d almost forgotten about that particular detail during the fight.

 

“Oh? And I was under the impression we both needed to recharge before we take care of any more… business.” She watched as he sent a torn look towards the bakery, not being in any way subtle or discrete. Her little _Chaton_ was so expressive and with years of practice under her belt, she could practically read him like a book at that point.

 

“Of course my lady, but um…”

 

“Yes Chat?”

 

“I need to check up on a civilian, Marinette, remember her? I told her I’d be coming and I don’t want to keep her waiting for long.” Well, he was certainly being upfront about it. That was likely his roundabout way of checking that she was okay with him visiting a civilian without her without asking outright. Well duh, of course she was okay with it, she was the civilian! Not that he knew that… Not that he would _ever_ know that. Still, he’d never asked her about anything like this before.

 

“Are you planning on a long visit?” Another beep from their miraculous.

 

“Not really? I just want to make sure that my pri- _Marinette’s_ okay after the attack. Akuma attacks are never nice, especially one so close to her home, y’know?” 

 

“Oh, of course! How about I go tell her that you’ll be running late while you go and recharge? Maybe take an hour or so, give her some time to get ready.” Perfect, that would give her an excuse to go straight back to her room and transform back _and_ give her a bit of time before Chat turned up. The cat in question just nodded and said his thanks before dashing off.

 

It wasn’t until Marinette was sat an hour later with her notebook in hand at her desk and a certain kitty tapping the glass that it occurred to her that Chats behaviour towards her as Marinette was a little odd. There were other people who were affected by akuma attacks all the time, why of all people did he think he had to check up on her? Even as Marinette, she was far from defenseless! He couldn’t know that she was Ladybug, he was acting too normal for that. Normal for Chat that was. She opted to shrug it off instead of overthinking it (for now). Though she would admit, it was rather strange.

 

That didn’t stop her from getting up and letting him inside. He slipped in with all the grace of a drunkard, stumbling slightly when his feet unexpectedly hit the bed. Yeah, maybe it was a horrible idea to put her bed right under the window to the rooftop balcony. She was so used to it that she’d forgotten it was ever a problem (that and it was more than a just little fun to be able to drop in after a patrol and land herself straight in bed). He launched himself over the side, ignoring the stairs completely. Then he spotted the plate that sat on the desk beside her.

 

“Are those cookies?” He said, through a mouthful of what were in fact, chocolate chip cookies.

 

“Wow, kitty. You’ve been here thirty seconds and you’re already eating me out of house and home.” She spun round on her heel and raised a hand to her head like she was about to faint before flopping face first onto her chaise lounge. He laughed through a mouthful of cookie, spewing crumbs out everywhere. She rolled onto her back so that she was facing him. “Ew, Chat. Gross.”

 

“Mffflly oogg!” He swallowed his mouthful and tried again. “These are really good! Are they from the bakery?” He picked up the plate and sat himself down next to her on the chaise, looking around her room curiously when he thought she wasn’t watching. Rude. Who taught this cat his manners? She thought he might need a refresher course. Or a new teacher.

 

“Actually papa told me I need to make my own cookies from now on, something about me eating into the profits, so I made these!” She only then realised then that her father had made a pun at her expense. A baking pun _and_ a money pun wrapped into one and it was terrible and she hated that she hadn’t noticed it before.

 

He stopped still with a cookie halfway to his mouth, looking at her with his wide, startlingly green eyes before lowering it back down again.

 

“Did you make these for me?”

 

Well, she’d been going to make some for Tikki anyway but decided at the last minute to make a few extra, remembering the one time she’d brought him some pastries from the bakery (in an inconspicuous brown bag without labels) as Ladybug. He’d almost gone out of his mind with glee and had promptly gone on a sugar high after eating almost all of them at once. “Yeah, I guess I did didn’t I?”

 

They sat like that for a while, even after the cookies where long gone. Just the two of them chatting, sitting beside each other, him swishing his tail from side to side and looking around and listening to her prattle on about who knows what. His eyes kept flicking back towards the wall where her posters of Adrien were, though to be fair, nowadays there were more design references and other models than just her crush and classmate. After coming to the realisation that she was maybe being just a little bit creepy sometime during her second year of knowing him, she’d taken down the worst of them. She just sat and watched Chat, though at one point she’d gotten up to retrieve her pencil and notebook to carry on with her newest design idea, completely forgetting exactly whose company she was in.

 

“Woah.” She yelped like a kicked puppy at the unexpected voice in her ear. “Oops, sorry princess. It’s really good though! Is it what I think it is?” It’s really good, he says, what is it, he says. Sort of says. Whatever.

 

“Kitty, no.”

 

“It is, isn’t it! I didn’t know you were a fan.” He wiggled his eyebrows and Marinette had to resist the urge to push him off the chaise. She failed and he hit the floor with a dull and oh so satisfying thud.

 

“I made Alya a ladybug jacket for her birthday and she said I should make a matching one for myself but…” But the red material she liked was expensive and her wearing anything Ladybug related was risky at best.

 

“ _Buuuut_?” he sat, propping his chin up on intertwined fingers looking up at her from below. He hadn’t stopped grinning even after she’d pushed him off. She crossed her arms and glared at the notebook, contrasting against how softly she spoke.

 

“You can find Ladybug everything, magazines, posters, bedsheets, I even saw Ladybug themed furniture the other day. But there’s nothing Chat Noir. It’s not fair, you’re just as important as Ladybug. And it still does sort of match, right?”

 

He sat in stunned silence, just staring at her. He’d seen the ladybug jacket already, Alya had posted it to the ladyblog and paraded it round the classroom, it was exquisitely made, highly detailed. It looked like something his father would definitely approve of, if not make himself. He couldn’t say anything, not without giving himself away or embarrassing himself, but that didn’t stop the happy bubbly feeling stirring in his gut.

 

“Um, Chat?” She piped up after a particularly long lull in conversation.

 

“Yes princess?”

 

“Didn’t you just come here to check up on me?”

 

“Yup.”

 

“You’re still here.”

 

“Yup.”

 

“It’s been over an hour.”

 

“Your point?”

 

“I feel adequately checked up on now. And you ate all my cookies.”

 

“Sorry Princess, guess it’s time for me to leave.” He stood and reached up, fumbling with the latch on the window for a minute before finally prising it open. He pulled himself up with considerably more grace that he came in with, disappearing for only a moment before he stuck his head back through. “You know why you shouldn’t feed strays?”

 

“Oh no.”

 

“They’ll just keep coming back.”


	2. Chapter 2

“So are those sclera contacts that make your eyes that colour and your pupils’ so catlike? It doesn’t look like your mask has lenses on it.”

 

They were sat side by side on the chaise lounge, where they usually sat on the evenings where he came round. Chat really did keep coming back like he’d warned her. This was what, the third time that week already that he’d popped in? The only rule that Marinette had set out was that he wasn’t allowed to come round straight after an akuma attack ( _“You have to sleep at some point, Chat_ ”).

 

She already knew that the colouration of his eyes and the sharpening of his canine teeth was an effect caused by the miraculous transformation, she’d asked Tikki about it one night when she should have been doing her physics homework. Ugh, Physics. She loved some of the learning, but all the tests and homework just put her off from really enjoying the subject. At first, other than the costumes there hadn’t been many physical changes and nothing that had lasted out of the transformation, but as time wore on they both noticed things changing. Still, if she wasn’t Ladybug or if hadn’t asked Tikki, she wouldn’t really have a reason to know how his outfit worked.

 

“Huh?”

 

“Well, unless you have green where your eye whites are supposed to be normally.” A look of understanding crossed his face and he gave her a rueful smile.

 

“Meow-ch, next you’ll be saying they’re weird looking.”

 

“Wellll…” She flopped sideways into him, acting like she was deep in thought considering it. It was all too easy to fall into this sort of banter with Chat, all too easy and all too familiar. She’d been finding it increasingly difficult to keep a clear line between her as Marinette and her as Ladybug the more time she spent with him, trying to remember what each half of her should or shouldn’t know. Marinette knew that he hardly ever got to eat sweets, she knew that sometimes he got lonely (even if he’d never come right out and say it to her, she could tell), she knew that he couldn’t cook to save his life and she knew he preferred lavender over vanilla but that he didn’t really have a favourite flavour or scent and how he’d wolf down anything she gave him like a man starved. As ladybug, she knew none of that, but she knew how hard he fought to protect what he held dear, she knew how well he could fight and how he was unwaveringly loyal and the best partner she could ever have asked for. As Marinette, she knew Chat Noir the person, and Ladybug, she knew Chat Noir the hero. It was a balance she fought to keep.

 

He gasped and playfully swatted at her, mindful of his claws. “Princess! I’ll have you know that I’ve been told that my eyes are my best feature, now you’re telling me they’re freaky! What is this poor cat to do?”

 

“Have a croissant?” She shifted the plate towards him with an all too innocent smile.

 

“Comfort eating is no solution!” He reached out towards the plate even as he spoke, the silly cat. He’d fallen right into her cunning trap.

 

“No croissant then. Got it.”

 

“I did not day that.” He pounced and tried to curl around the plate, only to find that Marinette had already snatched it away, too late for him to slow his momentum. An elbow got caught in Marinettes abdomen, not hard enough to hurt but enough to tickle and startle her. Chat ended up laying on this back, staring up at the ceiling in his surprise. He was up again before Marinette could even blink, looming over her, teeth shining and bared from his half-moon smile.

 

“No.”

 

“Princess~”

 

“Nope!” She rolled, trying to escape but alas, her fate was sealed. Hands found their way to the tender flesh at her middle and “ _oh God no no stop nooooo.”_

“I knew it!” He crowed in triumph, hopping around chasing after her around the room as she tried in vain to get away from him and his abuses. “You’re ticklish!”

 

“No, hahaha, I-I’m, pfft, not!”

 

They were interrupted by the insistent, angry buzzing of Marinettes’ phone, a lucky escape on her part. She was only half surprised to see a message from Alya, but the colour soon drained from her face when she read the messages.

 

Not such a lucky escape after all.

 

Alya:  Hey can I copy ur French notes? Mine are just doodle

You’d better answer! I’m dying here!

                Marinette, there is literally an akuma attack right outside and it’s headed towards my apartment complex!

                Just gone past, I think it’s headed towards the Eiffel Tower, I’m going after it. No sign of LB or CN yet.

 

Of course there was no sign of them! They were both sitting there enjoying themselves and eating leftovers from the bakery while Alya was running headlong into danger _again._

 

Silently, Marinette passed the phone to the suited up hero beside her. He paled a little too, though not nearly as much as Marinette had. He took her phone in one hand and scanned the messages, she could almost see the cogs turning in his mind as he came up with a plan of his own.

 

“Sorry princess, gotta go. I’ll see you around.” He turned tail and quickly disappeared out the glass trapdoor. Marinette closed her eyes and counted to thirty before following out after him, mentally plotting the route between Alya’s place and the Eiffel Tower, as well as figuring out how long it would likely take the average akuma to get there and if she’d be able to intercept it midway. In the end she decided to head straight towards the tower and scout out the situation. No doubt Chat would have done the same, unless he somehow knew where Alya lived, which would mean him knowing her as a civilian and then that would mean- _nope, don’t even start down that path Marinette._

 

The area around the monument was dimly lit, which was a bad sign considering that the area was almost always illuminated by what felt like a thousand lights. She stopped near the plaza area, 62+keeping the high ground as she peered into the gloom to try and pick out anything of significance. It was like there was a sphere if darkness around where the akuma should be.

 

A familiar presence found its’ way to her side, eyes practically glowing green in the darkness. Ah yes, Chat had night vision (she’d also found out as Marinette that even as a civilian he had heightened senses, a blessing and a curse apparently).

 

“It was like this when I got here, I swear.” He joked.

 

“Sure thing kitty, if you say so. Can you see anything?” She _really_ hated when akumas like this cropped up. They were always a pain to deal with and Chat only seemed to grow more reckless when she was put at any sort of disadvantage.

 

“Yup, just one akuma standing in the middle of the gloom. She looks like she’s waiting for us or… something. But…” He trailed off towards the end, making her uneasy.

 

“Yes, _Chaton?_ ”

 

“A friend of a friend should be nearby. I can’t see her anywhere.”

 

 _Alya._ She’d be lying if she said she wasn’t worried for her bestie, she’d actually spent hours trying to convince Alya not to keep chasing after akuma armed with nothing but her reporters’ instinct and her cellphone, however well they may have served her so far. A fruitless effort. At that moment though, she was ladybug and her priority was the akuma.

 

“I’m sure she’ll be fine. Alya can look after herself better than most.” She caught her slip only after she’d said it, going by what she could see of Chat’s face, he’d caught the mistake too. Quick, play it off.

 

“How…?”

 

“Please,” she rolled her eyes and hoped her nervousness didn’t show in her eyes “it’s _always_ Alya. It’s impressive that she’s gone all these years without getting herself badly hurt.”

 

“Uh… Found her.” He pointed into a spot in the gloom that she couldn’t see, somewhere off to their left. “Looks like she’s pretty out of the way, we can go ahead and deal with the akuma now, right?” She nodded and on an unspoken command they both split up. As soon as she passed through the first layer of darkness, she found that most of the darkness had dissipated. She let her eyes adjust to the new lighting before carrying on.

 

“Of course, if it isn’t Paris’ most obnoxious power couple,” the akuma had apparently spotted them. Now she was closer, Marinette could see that the akuma looked like she was wearing a ripped wedding dress, a dull, dirty white interspersed with what looked like smoky black lace. The most striking part of the outfit was definitely the black mist that rolled off the dresses train in trailing waves, interspersed with a few more solid, tendril like appendages. “I am DarkHeartr, and I’ll turn your heart to darkness!”

 

“Hey, give a cat a chance will ya?”

 

“Chat!” She scolded without breaking her attention from the akuma victim. Unfortunately, that also had the added effect of gaining the akumas unwelcomed attention. A black, formless cloud of… something that she really didn’t want to find out what it actually was flew towards her. Another followed it, and another, and a whole volley more. Ladybug dodged and dived, ignoring the akumas attacks and instead assessing the best way to take her down.

 

Something caught the moonlight, a delicate necklace hung round the akumas neck. That was likely where the little black butterfly was hiding. She caught Chats eyes and motioned towards her own neck, waiting for him to signal his understanding to her before calling out her lucky charm, throwing her yoyo up into the air. A black and red spotted flower bouquet landed in her outstretched hands. Chat was going to have a field day. She just knew he was keeping a list of the most irritating and obnoxious puns just for occasions such as these. Chat probably had a list of puns for almost every occasion knowing him.

 

A bouquet, and she’d caught it. Wedding themed akumas were rare, weddings tended to be full of happy feelings, not really akuma material.

 

Chat, as usual, started to distract the akuma the best way he knew how. It was a technique forged over years, the delicate art of annoying a crazed, superpowered akuma to the point that they become oblivious to everything around them. Chat had mastered it within a month and only got better (or worse, depending on who you asked) as time went on.

 

“Aww, my lady! You know what they say about the girl who catches the flowers at the wedding.”

 

“Chat. Akuma. Focus.”

 

“Meow-ch!”

 

She tutted at him and rolled her eyes, simultaneously jumping to her left to avoid another attack. “You’ve already used that one tonight _chaton._ ”

 

“Wha-?” oh damn. That had been back in her room as Marinette. Maybe she could play it off as a joke, or like she was just trying to test him? “There is _nothing_ wrong with re-using a few quality puns!” phew. Thank goodness Chat was a little dense sometimes. It really was a stroke of luck, him not noticing her slip ups.

 

“DON’T IGNORE ME!” The akuma shrieked, prompting Chat to start leaping around like a flea on caffeine, rattling off puns like there was no tomorrow.

 

“Aw, there goes my _train_ of thought. Didn’t anyone tell _mew_ that it’s rude to interrupt? How _furry_ im _purr_ lite!”

 

Ladybug circled round behind the akuma, hoping to grab the necklace while it was distracted. She hoped he was talking about the type of train found on a dress and not a locomotive.

 

“Arghh!” Chat had gotten too close to the akuma, who’d whipped three of the shadowy tentacles out towards him and caught him off guard, why she had tentacles was anyone’s guess, but she couldn’t do anything other than watch as Chat was lifted into the air, one appendage wrapped tightly around his chest and the two others each latching onto an arm. He struggled, but it was a wasted effort. Chat did his level best to keep a straight face, looking for all the world like being held aloft by a crazed akuma victim was nothing more than a mild inconvenience to him. Only Ladybug could see the real danger here. _“I’ll turn your heart to darkness.”_ There was no way that was a good thing. She hadn’t forgotten Dark Cupid.

 

She started flat out sprinting, glancing around and trying to think of what to do. She was terrified for Chat, but the easiest and fastest way to get him free would be to take out the akuma.

 

She was reminded of the flowers when she almost whacked herself in the face with them. Up until then her plan had consisted mostly of launching herself at the akuma from behind and ripping the necklace from around her stupid akuma neck. Not her most inspired plan, but she hadn’t exactly been up to anything flashier when she’d been more concerned with the look of pain on Chats face as the tendrils started to tighten around him.

 

Flowers. Why flowers?

 

She didn’t have any more time to think on it, instead using her momentum to throw herself the rest of the way to the akuma. It let out an indignant squawk as the hero collided with it in a full body tackle. In flinging her arms around the akuma, she’d also unceremoniously walloped her in the face with the flowers.

 

Three things happened simultaneously.

 

Firstly, the akuma sneezed. She’d seen a lot of things during her time as Ladybug, but an akuma with hay fever was a new one on her. Petals were sent flying everywhere by the force behind the sneeze. 

 

Secondly, Ladybug had snapped the chain of the necklace, breaking it and releasing the little black butterfly ready for her to cleanse.

 

Thirdly, Chat _screamed_.

 

When DarkHeart sneezed, she’d tensed, squeezing Chat so tight that even Ladybug heard the sickening crunching and grinding that could only come from the grinding of broken bones. As quickly as it had happened, he’d been dropped. Her partner slipped to the ground, boneless and for all appearances, totally unconscious. This akuma lived up to her name, she felt her heart shatter into tiny shards.

 

As fast as physically possible, she caught the butterfly in her yoyo. To hell with her usual dismissal, she hardly even glanced at the akuma victim sat looking dazed on the ground or the now white butterfly disappearing into the night sky.

 

Chat was blinking in confusion as he tried to sit up. His expression quickly turned into a wince as he jostled his injuries. The miraculous cure healed most of the damage, but there was no doubt in her mind that Chat would be suffering from some pretty painful bruising for the next few days at least. That was saying something considering how quickly miraculous holders tended to heal. The cure wasn’t perfect, sure it healed all civilians and property, but when it came to the heroes themselves, it couldn’t fix everything.

 

She wished she could say that this was the worst she’d ever seen him hurt.

 

“My lady?” She’d reached him in record time, propping him up with one arm behind his back and keeping him steady with the other while she crouched down beside him. His eyes held a mountain of emotion that was usually locked up tight behind his protective walls. How he could be so expressive but so guarded at the same time would forever be a mystery to her.

 

“Yes Chat?” She pretended that she hadn’t heard the waver in his voice, just as he pretended he hadn’t heard the break in hers.

 

“Guess you really gave her a dressing down, huh?” He winked and gave her a smile that was half grimace and half relief. “And let me tell you my lady, I was _not_ digging those tentacles.”

 

“Oh my god Chat, you nearly died.”

 

“I’ll stop doing it when you stop laughing.” He countered. She was giggling and dammit she knew exactly what he was doing. Even when he was the one hurt, he always tried to keep her smiling. Stupid, self-sacrificing idiot. “Bugaboo, what-?” She’d hugged him, pulling herself closer to him to hide the way her lower lip was trembling and her eyes no doubt clouded from tears that she absolutely refused to shed. She wouldn’t cry, not in front of him.

 

“I’ll take you most of the way home. You’re in no condition to travel this.” She’d done it before. In fact, after the third time they’d decided on a secluded back alley as a safe spot to drop him back at when things like these happened. Close enough to his home for him to get back safely, not so close that she’d be able to figure out where he lived. They’d agreed a similar spot for her as well, but had only needed to use it once.

 

“Are you two okay?” A familiar voice came from a little way behind her. She pulled away from Chat just enough that she wasn’t hugging him anymore and that their closeness looked more friendly than intimate. Alya, however well meaning, tended to overanalyse things as simple as body language. She was surprised to see that although she was no doubt still recording, she’d angled her phone away from the duo. She was a lot less surprised to see the look of pure, honest concern on her friends face. If there was one thing Alya did, it was care.

 

“I’m feeling _claw_ some, aren’t you my lady?” Any fragment of fragility Chat might have had dissipated as he slipped further into his Chat Noir persona, unshakable and relentlessly, unmistakably _Chat._

 

“Chat Noir, if you don’t start looking after yourself more I swear I am going to have to beat you so far into the pavement that you’ll be seeing the catacombs do you hear me?” Another development that had surprised Ladybug absolutely zilch, Alya had unofficially declared herself mother, father and older sister to the pair. She’d only been subject to her wrath a couple of times on this side of the mask but she could completely, without a single doubt confirm that an Alya style telling off was more terrifying than any akuma even as Ladybug.

 

“Yes Ma’am…” Chat, usually the subject of the telling offs, had learned long ago that the best way to pacify the reporter was to offer absolutely no resistance and to, under no circumstances whatsoever, make empty promises.

 

“In his defence, I’m the one who made DarkHeart sneeze. It was an accident this time.” She offered up with an apologetic glance towards Chat, though looking back at Alya she knew that she’d apparently said the wrong thing. Again.

 

“Uh-uh. Nope. You do _not_ get to blame yourself for this one Lady,” Alya usually edited these parts of the encounter out. As much as the followers of the ladyblog would probably love to hear this, Alya had said both to Ladybug and Marinette (under the impression that she’d once been witness to one of the verbal beat downs rather than being the one on the receiving end) that she didn’t want to tarnish the image that people had built up around the seemingly perfect, indestructible heroes.

 

Alya looked between the two of them, taking Chat’s bedraggled appearance and the slight redness around Ladybugs eyes, her entire demeanour softening.

 

“I’ll deal with the victim, you go do your thing.”

 

Ladybug nodded, scooping Chat up in her arms and ignoring his happy grin and the way he oh so subtly leaned in closer than was strictly necessary to her in favour of getting him back home safely.

 

She alighted in the usual spot and set him down on his own two feet. It was dark, only illuminated by the streetlamp a scant few metres away.

 

“Hey, Bug?” He looked so small, so insecure. That a guy who stood at least half a head taller than her could fold in on himself so much filled her with another rush of emotion. She’d have to start doing more nice things for him as Ladybug too, not just as Marinette. Sometimes she felt like she forgot to let him know just how much she cared.

 

“Yes, Noir?” He gently prodded her nose and stuck his tongue out at her.

 

“No teasing. I’m being serious here.” They were nearing where she usually dropped him off and she knew that after using lucky charm she wouldn’t have long left of her transformation. She owed Tikki a whole batch of cookies for even lasting this long. “I’ve been thinking and, well… What if something happens to one, or maybe even both of us? What do we do then?”

 

“How do you mean?” Was he about to try and ask her to reveal her identity to him again? It _had_ been a few months at least since he’d last tried to convince her it was a good idea. She… Wasn’t so much against the idea, not like she had been in the beginning. It was more complicated than just not wanting to. She had no idea how Chat would react to his Lady being his Princess too. She knew that knowing who Chat was, no matter if they knew each other as civilians or not, would likely throw her into emotional turmoil. Being Ladybug had always been more of a job to her, a duty. For Chat, being a superhero brought him freedom, he revelled in it. Marinette didn’t hate being Ladybug, she actually quite enjoyed it, she was just all too aware of the differences in attitude between her and her partner. It was those differences that were the root of her problem with revealing herself to him. It would almost feel like she was a traitor, not being the dedicated superhero he’d expect her to be.

 

“What if we get hurt, or worse, and our civilian selves suffer for it? People are bound to notice eventually. Especially our friends. I know you don’t want to tell me who you are but… Maybe we should tell some of the people that we’re close to?”

 

That… That was honestly something she’d never given much thought before. Sure, she’d considered it once or twice, but she’d always managed to talk herself out of it. Who exactly would she tell? Alya would probably be crushed, angry at her for not telling her before and she didn’t really have any other close friends. She did hang out with everyone and was generally on good terms with her whole class, but Alya was her rock. If she was going to tell anyone else, it would feel like betraying her. It _would_ be betraying her, more than just keeping her identity a complete secret. Her parents were another thing entirely. If they found her out, then they might try and stop her from being Ladybug to try and protect her.

 

“Chat…”

 

“Please my lady, I don’t know how much longer I can hide it.”

 

Selfish. She was being selfish again. When he’d asked her, the first thing she’d thought of had been _herself_ and what _she_ would do. She hadn’t even considered that Chat might be struggling with his own identity issues. Some partner she was.

 

“I think…” Deep breaths Marinette, it’s not the end of the world “If you really want to then I can’t stop you. As for me… I’ll have to think about it. I’m honestly not quite sure who I’d even tell.”

 

She half expected him to crack a joke or try and lighten the mood in some way. Instead, he just nodded and smiled, both in acknowledgement of what it meant to her to say it and what it meant to him to hear it.

 

“Thank you, Ladybug.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Why she had tentacles was anyones guess" ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)


	3. Chapter 3

“Adrikins~!”

 

Adrien huffed a quiet, longsuffering sigh and braced for impact. Half the time he was sure that Chloe was trying to crush him when she hugged him. He tried to escape the Chloe Death Grip whenever he could but today he’d been too slow. She’d gone in for a sneak attack, not making so much as a single sound right up until she’d sprung herself at him.

 

In a rare display of luck, she didn’t notice him hiss quietly when she put pressure on his bruised ribs. The injury was three days old and nowhere near as bad as it had been the day after it happened, the bruises were all but invisible already. That didn’t mean that he didn’t still ache.

 

“Chloe, why do you still do this?” He knew she’d heard him but instead of answering she just made a show of latching herself onto his arm and started walking him away from the classroom for lunch and straight out to his car and driver that had been sitting out waiting for him since exactly two minutes before the lunch bell rang.

 

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. Now, we are going to go get lunch and _you_ are going to tell me why you’ve been acting so weird recently.” It always amazed him how Chloe was completely different the second she was alone with him. In public, she was still every bit the diva she had always been. More recently, in a development that had shocked him right down to the core, she’d actually and legitimately matured. That wasn’t to say that it was a total transformation, or something that had happened overnight. Nothing could change what she’d done in the past, they both knew that, but somewhere along the lines, bit by bit, Chloe had changed for the better while still remaining essentially herself. It was just a shame she only truly showed it around him and very probably Sabrina, who, as far as he knew, were the only two people that she called her friends. At least she’d calmed down on the bullying.

 

Her remarkable change in attitude hadn’t been what he’d been alluding to, Adrien now knew that Chloe had a very different reason to not be clinging to him and pretending to have a crush on him, though she did admit that she had been genuinely convinced of her undying affection for him for a good year or two. He’d have almost been flattered if her possessiveness hadn’t ended up in so many people being akumatised.

 

“I haven’t been acting weird.”

 

“Yes, you have.”

 

“Nope.”

 

“Yes. And if you don’t want to tell me then _fine_ , but I _will_ figure it out. Don’t think I didn’t notice you flinching every time I got near you the last couple of days.” She looked him up and down and he just knew that it was a lost cause to even try and pretend she was imagining it. Chloe was on a mission. Something must have showed in his expression because her eyes suddenly grew round as saucers and she practically whisper shrieked “Are you hurt!?” then just as quickly “How?”.

 

Several years of hiding a secret identity meant that he could lie smoothly even to his (limited) friends.

 

“It’s kinda embarrassing…” She glared at him so he left just the right amount of time to be convincing before letting himself wilt under her gaze “Fine… well, I was playing around on my rock wall but I must have tied the support ropes wrong because I slipped and the ropes got tangled around my chest and I know it could have been worse but still, it’s embarrassing.” She was giving him a look again, like she still wasn’t quite convinced he was telling the truth (he wasn’t) but decided to let the subject drop. This wasn’t the first time she’d dragged him out to lunch just to interrogate him about something and he very much doubted that it’ be the last.

 

“Right, well, can you believe what Marinette said earlier? The nerve of that girl!”

 

“That thing about the group project?” He could barely recall Marinette, still the class representative, emphatically telling everybody to put in an equal share of work into the group project, which Chloe had read as a subtle dig at the way she usually piled all her work onto the rest of the group. Now that she’d pointed it out, he could easily see that yes, the comment probably _had_ been directed at Chloe. The feud between those two girls was still going good and strong. Exactly what Chloe had against the ever sweet and kind Marinette he had no idea, at this point he was beginning to think that it was just a matter of pride. Either that or the strangest form of bonding he’d ever witnessed. Whatever it was, he knew to steer well clear when they were on the warpath.

 

“Exactly! Then she goes and partners with that wannabe journalist and then _they_ go and buddy up with poor you and Nino!” He rolled his eyes and started to tune out the conversation. He’d told her a hundred times already, he actually _liked_ Alya and Marinette. The latter girl had even gotten over whatever it was that made her unable to talk to him and had now progressed onto almost full conversations with him! That was without counting his evening visits as Chat Noir (which he didn’t count because she didn’t exactly know it was him under the mask).

 

Thinking about Chat, as usual, led him on to thinking about Ladybug. Thinking of Ladybug got him thinking about the last time he’d seen her, when she’d given him permission to reveal his identity to friends but admitted that she likely wouldn’t do it herself, or not anytime soon. A part of him wanted to wait until she was ready to reveal his alter ego to anyone else, but he’d been telling the truth when he’d admitted that he didn’t know how much longer he could hide away. He’d held out four long years already, but explaining away his continued absences and various injuries was grating on him, not just because he had the sinking feeling that both Nino and Chloe suspected that he was getting his injuries in a home environment. _Yeah, right, because his father and the staff really spent enough time to beat him or whatever they thought was going on._ But because he had no one to fall back on at the end of the day, no one to vent to or to help come up with excuses when he wasn’t up to doing it himself. Plagg tried but he never really got it, he’d seen it all too many times before. Adrien’s last straw had been him being called into his father’s office to have him… not yell, just that cold, calculated drawl that he reserved for the people who he thought below him; everyone. Well, everyone who wasn’t a ‘respected client’ or an ‘asset to the company’. Usually, Adrien found himself in the ‘you should be doing better’ pile, what with the impossibly high standards being pressed on him. Still, even as far as Agreste style lectures went, that one had been rough.

 

It's one thing to be told that your performance was disappointing, and it’s something else entirely to be called a disappointment.

 

It was probably just because his father got more tense around this time of year, but he knew that didn’t make it okay. Nino had sat him down a while ago and presented a very informative, well written powerpoint detailing exactly all the ways in which his dad sucked, using only what few facts Adrien had let slip and a few screenshots from conversations almost as old as their friendship. That had been a real eye opener and he’d never even noticed half of the stuff Nino had told him about (though he did flat out reject a few of the more hare-brained ideas he’d presented). Sometimes he had to take a moment to sit back and appreciate how privileged he was to have such good friends. 

 

“Adrien! God, are you even listening to me? Are you going to order something or not?” Apparently, Adrien had been so far out of it that he’d completely missed Sabrina joining them in the car, the three of them arriving at an overpriced café/restaurant and finding a table. Wow. He looked at the menu and attempted to cover up his blunder by picking the first thing that seemed vaguely appetising and not grossly unhealthy (curse you, model diet). He ended up with a whole lot of lettuce and some brightly coloured cubes that he guessed were diced vegetables with a drizzle of some bitter sauce. A rich kids’ salad.

 

Chloe may have been sat across from him like a woman typically would on a date, with Sabrina supposedly third-wheeling from her spot beside Chloe, but he didn’t mind so much anymore. He could see that she’d at some point joined hands with Sabrina under the table, their smiles becoming just a little more strained than before. A lot had happened between the two girls that he, for the most part at least, had no idea about. All he knew was that Sabrina had moved on from her almost servile relationship with Chloe a while back and had cut off contact. Chloe had completely lost it for a while, both had taken time away from each other and had somehow cycled back around to being closer than ever before. Sabrina was more confident in herself and wasn’t half as afraid to stand up for herself, whereas Chloe had slowly opened up to her and was showing brief glimpses of a girl that he hadn’t seen in years. The happy little girl who he’d called his first ever friend, not the bully he’d come to resent over the last few years.  

 

He wasn’t the third wheel, he was the enabler/wingman here. He told himself that as he munched on his salad, which unsurprisingly, didn’t really taste of much. It was mostly just for show. Just like his presence there.

 

They finished up lunch, paid the frankly ridiculous bill and headed back to the school the same way that they came, arriving a neat five minutes before the bell sounded.

 

The rest of the school day flew by quickly, a blur of jotting down notes (doodles) and jumbled thoughts. He still had no idea who exactly he’d out himself as Chat to, Nino was practically a given. That boy was a godsend even at the worst of times and he could keep secrets like a pro when the situation called for it, he just had to wait for the right time. He’d feel bad if it was just Nino, Alya and Marinette were his friends too and he didn’t want Nino to be the only one since that might bum him out. Once the novelty wore off, having a superhero for a best friend was sure to stress Nino out a whole tonne. He wanted to tell Marinette, but he had no idea how that would affect his visits as Chat and honestly, she’d only just started to feel more comfortable around him so if he was going to tell her he’d wait until they were on steadier ground friendship-wise. He wasn’t quite ready for that shift in dynamic. He’d considered telling Alya too, but decided against it when he remembered that she’d spent the last few years desperately trying to unmask them and honestly, he was just the tiniest bit afraid of her. She was like a mother bear and she treated Chat like a naughty cub. No way did he want to turn that attitude onto plain old Adrien.

 

The mama bear in question wasted no time in grabbing the unsuspecting Adrien and half walking, half dragging him along with her when he didn’t immediately leave the classroom. He had the afternoon free and he’d been fully intending on taking the longest, slowest route home as possib0le.

 

“We’re going over to Marinettes place to work on the group project Mr ‘I have things scheduled almost every day after school’.”

 

“Why Marinettes? My place has more room and nobody’s home today until the evening. Wouldn’t we disturb her parents work?” Alya just snorted at him and waved a hand dismissively in his direction, still dragging him behind her.

 

“Yes, but Mari’s place has the best food and we all know Nino’s ultimate weakness is pecan pie.” She gave him a look that sent the smallest thread of fear through him “And her parents have been itching to meet you for a while now.”

 

Adrien decided to walk a little faster, if only to stop Alya from throwing him over her shoulder and carrying him the rest of the way. His dignity could only take so much. Now, if it had been _Ladybug_ threatening to throw him over her shoulder…

 

He shook his head free of that line of thinking just in time to spot the Dupain-Cheng bakery just down the street. Technically, he had been there before as Adrien and he had actually met Marinette’s parents, just never formally and usually in passing since Marinette kept pulling him away almost before he could even say hello. The last time he’d been there as Adrien Agreste had to have been well over a year ago already. As Chat Noir, he’d been there only last night, if Marinettes room counted as visiting the bakery. Her parents didn’t exactly know about that though, or at least he hoped not.

 

The smell of the bakery all but overtook his senses as they drew nearer and he felt a pang of hunger. It may have been his somewhat lacking lunch, his strict diet that didn’t quite account for his superhero activities or maybe his near nightly visits to see Marinette had conditioned him to associate the bakery with being fed, or perhaps a combination of all three, but Adrien suddenly felt like he could easily devour all the food on display and then some. For a brief, crazy moment, he considered the possibility of Marinette trying to discover Chat Noirs true identity via feeding him and letting the rumble of his stomach out him. He cracked the sort of amused smile rarely seen on Adriens face but often on Chats, though he dropped it as he entered the bakery and remembered whose company he was in. Maybe acting too much like Chat in front of the one civilian who was constantly on the lookout for Chat without the mask wasn’t the best of ideas. Listening to the pleasant tinkling of the bell above the door and the pleasant hum of the bakery from all the various machines and people was nice. More than nice.

 

“Oh, Alya, Marinette and Nino are already up in her room. And Adrien, It’s so nice to see you again son. Sabine’ll be up with more snacks later, I know how much you kids can pack away.” Tom was manning the counter, but he still took the time between customers to welcome them and wave them in the direction of where they were meant to be. Adrien felt his heart warm a little at the man’s casual affection. Tom Dupain was a gentle giant of a man, in the few times that he’d met him he’d always gone out of his way to make Adrien feel welcomed. Adrien always tried not to let his awkwardness show through. It was strange to feel wanted for anything other than his looks by anyone other than his few friends.

 

He could practically sense Plagg rolling his eyes and muttering about teen angst.

 

“Dudes, you made it!” Nino, true to form, tackled the two new arrivals with an arm each and pulled them other to where Marinette was sat surrounded by paper and textbooks. She’d already written at least two pages of notes and what looked like a plan for dividing up the work.

 

Adrien didn’t look too long at the setup though, too caught up in watching how Marinette lit up when they walked in. She had a smudge of ink on the side of her hand from where she’d been writing and resting her hand on the paper, he’d seen it when she nervously tucked a few strands of hair out of her face.

 

Almost as soon as they settled themselves down, Marinette not so subtly pushed the almost empty plate of assorted pastries and breads towards him, almost like it was a force of habit. He wondered if she did that to all her guests or if that was her subconsciously treating him like Chat. she launched into an explanation of what they’d already gotten covered and asked a few work related questions and Adrien quickly got absorbed in jotting down useful information and sources.

 

Marinettes mother walked in an hour or so later with an armful of even more food and a warning not to spoil their dinner, while also inviting them all to stay for dinner, which Nino accepted on his behalf before he had a chance to politely decline. He made a mental note to text Natalie to inform the cooks that he’d be eating round a friends. She would probably cover for him, he’d overheard her mention his weight to his father over the phone once or twice before and it hadn’t been to complain he was putting it on, and the cooks liked him well enough not to rat him out. Besides, one meal wasn’t likely to ruin his diet. Now, the almost nightly snacks he got courtesy of a certain Miss Dupain-Cheng… Well, it didn’t count for Adrien if it was Chat Noir that did the eating.

 

Sabine side-eyed him when she thought he wasn’t looking, the type of appraising look he was used to getting from fussy photographers and the occasional tailor or seamstress, and it set him a little on edge. The only difference between the way she looked at him and the way the industry professionals looked at him was the motherly concern that she practically oozed around him and the lack of critical comments on his physique. She turned and left after saying that dinner would be in another hour.

 

Their temporary interruption was almost immediately forgotten when all four of them tried to pounce on the new food at once. Adrien found himself teaming up with Nino while Alya and Marinette fought each other as much as them. The girls fought like wildcats, the guys hardly stood a chance. It was brutal. It wasn’t until Alya half launched him into Marinette in pursuit of an éclair that he remembered something important:

 

Marinette was ticklish.

 

With a distinctly Chat like gleam in his eyes, he reached out with one hand and wiggled his fingers right against that sensitive patch on her side, feeling her recoil and hearing her gasp of surprise. With his other hand he swiped the jam tart right out of her hand, ignoring her indignant screech of protest.

 

_All’s fair in love and war_

 

As it turned out, they needn’t have worried about ruining dinner by eating too much, after Adrien pulled the tickling stunt, all hell broke loose. It didn’t take long for some pillows to get involved and Adrien found himself being pelted with the very same cat cushion he’d teased Marinette about mercilessly. Karma at its finest. Food was all but forgotten. Somehow all the notes ended up being stacked neatly out of the way. Which was strange, since he hadn’t noticed any of the others sneaking away from the battleground at any point, yet alone to do something as sensible as to tidy.

 

Forty minutes later saw all four of them in a strange sort of dogpile on the floor, breathless from laughter and exertion. Adrien couldn’t remember doing anything like that before. He may have been nursing a bruise or two from a stray hit here or there (Marinette was _a lot_ stronger than he’d given her credit for), but he found that he was practically floating with how giddy he felt. Maybe he’d hit his head and was suffering from concussion, or maybe he’d needed that more than he’d thought.

 

Sabine eventually returned and poked her head through the trapdoor, looking equal parts horrified and amused at the mess they’d made, Adrien braced himself for a scolding and was pleasantly surprised when she just chuckled and told them that the food was downstairs when they were ready.

 

With a woop and a cry, Nino and Alya raced away after Sabine, but Adrien followed Marinettes lead and stayed perfectly still where he was. After all, she was the one that lived there, she probably knew the routine better than he did. Even without his enhanced hearing he’d have been able to hear the disappointed groans from below. The girl beside him just leant back on her elbows, sighed fondly and shook her head, failing to hide her smug look.

 

“She does this to them every time, She’ll call them down before dinner’s ready to get them to set the table up. Works like a charm.” He frowned.

 

“Shouldn’t we go down and help?”

 

“Nah, we still have a few minutes, hope you like washing up though.” A sudden bout of awkwardness overtook her and he struggled to figure out why until he came to the realisation that he, a teen male, was sitting alone with her, a teen female, in her bedroom unsupervised. Honestly, he was so used to it that he’d almost forgotten that she didn’t know that he was, well, _him_.

 

“I-I mean, you don’t have to you’re probably busy and it’s not like you have to wash up it’s just tradition for whoever cooks or sets out the table not to have to the washing up because there’s usually only three of us but I’m sure papa wouldn’t mind doing it instead if we asked and oh, I’m rambling again aren’t I?” Instead of the mortified, wide eyed stare that usually accompanied that sort of outburst, she surprised him with a breathy giggle. Maybe it was the fact that they were somewhere that she was more comfortable or just one more step towards her becoming more confident around him, but he found that he was getting to like the happy, bubbly Marinette. It was certainly less awkward than the ‘can’t get two words out’ Marinette that he was more used to, he was happy for her.

 

“Okay, should we head down now?” He could hear the tell-tale sound of food being plated up below them, but he wasn’t exactly supposed to be able to hear that so he couldn’t outright say it.

 

“Sure!”

 

Dinner was good, no, great. He’d grown up eating what was supposedly the finest food Paris had to offer, the staff in his kitchen were highly trained and used only the freshest, highest quality (read: most expensive) ingredients. Their main focus may have been keeping his father happy, but that didn’t mean they slacked off when it came to Adrien. But nothing could be compare to Sabine’s pasta bake. The pasta had just enough crunch to be satisfying but not so much that it was brittle, and best of all, it was filling. Adrien had admired how the Dupain-Chengs were so warm. Kind, loving and welcoming, everything that his father wasn’t. The food was just like the family, amazing.

 

He'd somehow ended up sandwiched between Sabine and Tom, with Nino, Alya and Marinette sat directly opposite him. It probably should have been more awkward, if Tom hadn’t quickly started firing off puns. Adrien, Chat Noir or not, had an unholy love of puns and quickly got caught up in a battle of the pun-sters, much to everyone else’s chagrin (they loved it really).

 

For some odd reason, no matter how much he ate, his plate never seemed to get any less full. The others were already on their second helpings and poor Adrien was left still with his first plateful only a quarter of the way gone. He was _sure_ that he hadn’t put too much on his plate. He wouldn’t, Adrien was supposed to be too polite and courteous to ever take too much at once. And why on earth was everyone giggling so much? It wasn’t even the puns they were laughing at!

 

The same happened with dessert, leftovers and reject stock from the bakery. He realised only then that Marinette had either been taking the remains of her dessert for him almost every night or that she’d been setting aside some especially for him, as well as occasionally baking herself. He doubted she’d have told her parents about Chats nightly visits and he had wondered how she kept up the constant stream of food, not that he was complaining.

 

Despite being Chat Noir for a solid few years already, he still hadn’t quite managed to reconcile with himself that yes, he, Adrien Agreste, was Chat Noir and that yes, he, Chat Noir, was Adrien Agreste. He was just… him. The only difference the mask or lack thereof made was how much he could express himself and get away with it. He didn’t feel like one half of his identity was any different from the other, just two sides of the same person.

 

“Aw man, thanks for having us Mr and Mrs Dupain-Cheng!” Nino grinned, clutching a goodie bag that Sabine had presented him with, Alya and Adrien had one each too. Apparently All three had things that they liked in, with his having a wider variety to ‘sample’.

 

Sabine was sitting with the four teenagers in the living room while Tom washed up after losing seven consecutive games of rock paper scissors to Marinette. He honestly wouldn’t have minded helping, but Tom had quickly waved him away to join his friends.

 

“No need to thank me, you’re all welcome here any time.”

 

“Remember that one time Alya turned up at 4am just to test that theory?” Marinette piped up, causing Alya to turn beet red and make some strange spluttering noises.

 

“ _Yes._ Now, I’d much rather we _not_ do that again, but any time means any time. Chengs’ honour.” She winked, Alya squawked again. Knowing Marinettes parents, or at least going by what he’d seen of them, they’d actually let Alya in and welcomed her like they would at any other time of day.

 

His phone chirped.

 

“The Gorilla’s here, I should go. Thanks for having me, and for the food. It was amazing, honestly.”

 

“Looks like it’s home time.” Nino stood with him, probably hoping to hitch a ride with him. He’d get one, Gorilla may be stoic, but he was kind and he liked Nino. He may be banned from the mansion, but there was no ban on having Nino in the limo.

 

“Speak for yourselves boys, I’m staying right here.” Alya’d already declared that she was sleeping over that night. Given that she had her own drawer full of clothes and supplies in Marinettes room and how nobody even batted an eyelid, it must be something that happened often.

 

It probably helped that Marinette only lived a few minutes away from the school.

 

“Adrien? Pop into the bakery some time dear, we’d love to have you, even just for lunch.” He was confused for a moment, why would Sabine say that to him specifically? Maybe because it had been so long since he’d been there before or maybe because she could just sense that he didn’t really believe that the offer also extended to him? He didn’t know, but that didn’t stop him from being happy about it.

 

Saying goodbye, he turned and left the warmth of the bakery. He grew quiet on the car, wondering how best to evade Nathalie and if Marinette would mind If Chat came to visit so soon after Adrien had left.

 

It’s not like she knew they were the same person.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> idek about the chloe/sabrina thing i just like the idea of both the girls growing and developing as individuals without changing who they really are and thought it could be cool to explore. If people really don't like it then i can take it out no problem since it's only a background relationship. but i do feel like three years is enough time for people to change, the me from three years ago is totally different from the me today. 
> 
> And foodfights are much more fun than akuma fights :P


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ngl i had this idea and laughed for ten minutes straight. It's p much just crack and i love it

Marinettes day had been awful. She’d known from the moment that she’d woken up that she was going to be having a bad day, she just knew it. Her whole week had been the worst, no less than four akuma attacks, which meant three evenings that Chat didn’t come by in the evening (and one she’d only let him stay for a few minutes before telling him to go and rest), a persistent migraine that was constantly fraying at the edges of her already thinning will to live and to top it all off, Adrien had been pulled out of class for some reason or another almost every day, leaving her one friend/crush short.

 

She hadn’t been wrong. The day was just the soggy icing on the rotten cake.

 

It probably hadn’t helped much that their usual teacher was ill and the supply teacher who was replacing her was a real dragon of a woman who, in her opinion, shouldn’t be allowed within ten miles of any school anywhere. She was the type of teacher who chose favourites, and of course, Chloe wound up being one of them. Marinette on the other hand… wasn’t. It wouldn’t have been much of a stretch to think that this lady even had a vendetta against her. Almost every teacher in the school knew of her tardy nature and at this point had even started to see it more as a small quirk to an otherwise dedicated student, rather than an affront to them or their teaching. This lady had apparently decided that being late was the same as not turning up at all and had even threatened to lock the door as soon as the bell rang to prevent ‘latecomers’ (with an extremely self satisfied and pointed look towards Marinette, who had actually been almost perfectly on time that day, not that it mattered).

 

Chloe had been on the warpath for some reason unknown to her, taking out her frustrations on whoever dared get too close and Alya had been too busy threatening to rip the snobbish blonde limb from limb to notice the supply teacher standing right behind her and had somehow ended up having her seat switched with Chloe, meaning that poor Marinette had to sit next to her tormentor the whole day. That particular stroke of genius on the teacher’s part had ended in an endless stream of bickering that only escalated as time went on and a few scathing remarks too far.

 

Alya had been sending her worried glances, watching as her friend slowly wilted under Chloe’s almost constant barrage. It wasn’t that Marinette wasn’t giving as good as she got, just that even from across the classroom Alya could see that Marinette was flagging.

 

Adrien had been her only saving grace. Truly, that boy got more angelic by the day. Every time Chloe said something particularly scathing he’d turn and distract her somehow. He’d once tried to convince her and Alya that Chloe wasn’t as bad as she seemed. Once. Unfortunately, he’d been called away to yet another photoshoot at lunch and she just happened to know that he wouldn’t be finishing up until an hour after school finished.

 

Marinette had forgotten her usual sketchbook on her desk in her frenzied rush to get to school sort of on time and spite the teacher, so she’d been using a spare that she usually kept in her locker, the girl was prepared for almost anything, even herself. She hadn’t been totally heartbroken when she’d accidently spilled her half-finished cup of coffee all over it, since it was her spare. She was lucky really, that she’d left her main book it at home. She had a whole bunch of ideas in that she’d all but fallen in love with, losing them would have just been too much. It didn’t feel much like luck to her at the time, looking down at a perfectly ruined sketchbook.

 

That had been how the first half of her day had gone.

 

As soon as school had let up she’d stormed out, angry at the world, oblivious to Alyas’ growing concern and worry. She hadn’t noticed her friend try and catch up to her as she’d sped away, all she’d wanted was to get home and vent to Tikki, maybe even let off some steam as Ladybug with an unplanned patrol. At least at home there was no risk of running into Chloe. 

 

The moment she’d gotten home she’d practically thrown herself into her chaise, screaming into a cushion until her throat felt tight. It didn’t exactly help much. At least the cushion muffled the sound enough that her parents hadn’t heard her.

 

“Marinette? Are you feeling okay?” Oh Tikki, the kind, loving little red spotted kwami was one of the best ancient fairy/possible deity companions a girl could ask for.

 

“Not really… just. Chloe! Why does she have to such a spoiled little… ugh! And the teacher, the sketchbook, the coffee, everything’s just been terrible!”

 

“I know how you must be feeling, but I really think you should try and calm down. It’s not good to let such negative feelings run wild!” Tikki’s eyes were wide and her presence comforting. Tikki loved Marinette and hated to see her feeling so down. She also knew that her chosen was being pushed to her breaking point, the stress of her everyday life added to the stress of being Ladybug was bad enough at any other time. The events of the past week had just been the catalyst for Marinettes current emotions, there was a lot more going on beneath the surface that Tikki wasn’t even sure that the young woman was even aware of. At times like these, it was almost painful to watch.

 

Though Marinette was protected from being akumatised by her miraculous. For the most part, miraculous holders were shielded from Hawkmoths senses and were totally immune to akumatisation as long as they held the miraculous, but as with the miraculous cure, it had its limits. There was no way for Hawkmoth to know that he couldn’t control Marinette. He may still try and get to her poor chosen if her negative feelings grew strong enough for Hawkmoth to sense, and that could cause all sorts of trouble! Unfortunately, Marinette was in too much of a foul mood to be able to calm herself down on her own. She needed a gentle push in the right direction.

 

Luckily, there were a lot of things that were better at calming Marinette down than pillow screams. All it took was a gentle nudge from her red and black spotted companion and Marinette got the hint.  

Marinette found herself standing in the kitchen, secure in the knowledge that she had a plan, instead of her usual cookies or leftovers from the bakery she’d decided to make something more filling for Chat. He’d had a long week just like she had, she’d figured as much from the limited time they’d spent together, both fighting all four akuma and while he was with her as Marinette. She needed to destress and cooking was cathartic and if there was one boy she could rely on to eat whatever she put in front of him, it was Chat Noir. As weird as she thought it probably was, something about the familiar weight of a good cutting knife in her hands and the rhythmic motion of preparing and slicing the ingredients helped her wind down from even her worst moods in the past. There hadn’t been an akuma that day so Chat was almost certain to swing by (and the mood she was in, if she didn’t have her earrings on at all times there every well could have been an akuma).

 

Cooking was her failsafe; it had worked every single time. Sometimes, like now, it took her a while to get into the swing of things, but for the most part the effect was immediate. It just spoke of how frustrated she was really feeling that she’d diced three onions into pulpy mush before she managed to eventually get something even slightly useable. She’d decided on a stew, something that involved a lot of prep work and time to cook. Plus, she could keep any leftovers for her lunches so her mother wouldn’t have to spend time preparing anything for her. But only if Chat didn’t eat it all, which he very well might. She wouldn’t really mind too much either way.

 

The bell rang downstairs, but she ignored it and left it to her parents to deal with. It was probably a mailman or a delivery of some sort, something that she usually left for her parents handle. The momentary distraction caused the classic ‘clumsy Marinette’ to rise to the surface once more just to throw a wrench in all her best made plans, her hand slipped on the potato she’d been peeling and she narrowly avoided slicing her palm wide open. The shock should have numbed her, but instead it just brought back all the negative feelings that she’d been slowly ridding herself of.

 

Brilliant, just brilliant. Exactly what she needed.

 

A frustrated groan escaped her, blocking out the sound of her mother calling out to her from downstairs. Instead, she found herself attacking the potato with renewed vigour, finding maybe a little too much satisfaction in chopping it into even cubes. She didn’t even notice when Tikki let out a frightened little squeak and quickly darted away to hide, or when the kitchen door swung open behind her.

 

What she had noticed was something dark and fluttering that had obviously found its way in through an open window, winding its way towards her, or more specifically her knife.

 

_(Or at least, she’d say it was the knife if anyone ever asked, but she had a sneaking suspicion that it had actually been aiming for the potato she’d been cutting. Imagine what kind of akuma that would have made her. An embarrassing one, that’s what. No way was she risking going down in history as ‘the one Ladybug who was a potato that one time’, nu-uh.)_

“Oh, um, Marinette, Alya said she was worried about you so she asked me to come check and- OH MY GOD.”

 

She’d reacted on instinct, really. Just as Adrien, dear, lovely, unsuspecting Adrien, had walked in, already halfway through explaining his timely presence, she’d seen the tiny black butterfly headed towards her. He’d seen it too, just a moment too late to take action. Instead, he could only watch on in horror as the akuma got closer and closer to his princess.

 

Then she, purely without thought but entirely with good intentions, stabbed it.

 

She’d stabbed it while screeching a Valkyrie’s war cry of “ _nopenopenope nottodayHawkmoth nope_!” and leaping away from the mighty beast, straight into Adrien’s arms.

 

There was a single moment where the world stood still, where two teens stood half pressed against one another trying to come to terms with what had just happened, with what they had just witnessed.

 

Adrien made a mental list of the sequence of events in a futile effort to compute.

 

  * Marinette had been feeling down all week.
  * She had been targeted by Hawkmoth.
  * Marinette had stabbed an akuma, _with a knife that was stuck so deep into the cutting board that it was still standing upright_
  * Marinettes soul appeared to have left her body. Adrien wasn’t much better if he was being honest with himself.
  * There was akuma slime soaking into the half cut potato chunks, it was gross and slightly concerning.
  * They probably wouldn’t want to be using that cutting board anytime soon, not without using up all the disinfectant in Paris first.



 

Well, that was the sort of welcome he’d never expected. He felt the most absurd swell of pride for his princess, having denied Hawkmoth the pleasure of another rampaging akuma. Though, he also thought, Marinette would have made a badass akuma with an akumatised knife. He’d leaned by then that most akumas powers directly related to the circumstance of their akumatisation and that more often than not, the akumatised item was somehow involved with that. Chef-themed akumas must run in the family. Then, he just as quickly pushed those thoughts away because he _did not_ want to imagine that. At all. Nor did he want to imagine having to fight her, another close friend, no matter how cool an akuma she would make. He’d already had to face Nino and Alya, as well as almost every other person in his classes over the years. He didn’t want to have to fight Marinette too.

 

Surprising them both, Marinette was the first to regain any semblance of functionality. She cast a sugary sweet smile that was more sinister than reassuring in his direction, delicately extracting herself from where he’d unconsciously held onto her after she’d jumped into his arms as if nothing in the world had just happened at all.

 

“Oh hi Adrien! Sorry, I’ve just gotta… deal with something quickly!” she spun on her heel and yanked the knife out of the wood, before setting it down on the counter. Then, she picked up the entire chopping board _,_ careful not to touch any of the black goop leaking from the butterfly. Curious as to what she was going to do with it, he followed behind her as she walked down to the bakery in search of her parents.

 

“Papa, is there an oven free?” She brushed off her parents startled looks, instead she waited patiently until Tom muttered something which must have been an answer to her question, or so he assumed. He offered both the adults a shrug before he trailed after Marinette again, if only to show that he had no more of a clue what was happening that they did. She led him deep into the kitchen, walking straight up to what looked to Adrien like a kiln with all the confidence that the type of girl who would murder a magical black butterfly deserved to have. He could feel the heat from the kiln oven from across the room.

 

She opened the door using an oven mitt and dumped the akuma, potato and even the cutting board inside, slamming the door back shut with an air of finality, clapping her hands together before pivoting on the spot, turning her full attention to him.

 

“Honestly, I wasn’t feeling _that_ upset. Like hell I’d let a rough week send me running to Hawkmoth. You were saying something about Alya?” She chirped, her eyes were the only thing that gave her actual feelings away, they had a wild glint in them that told him that she was only just holding herself together. Her hands were clasped behind her and he couldn’t help but think that maybe they’d be shaking. He knew that his own two hands were at least a little bit jittery. Probably not from the same sort of feelings that she had at that moment.

 

He wanted to gush, tell her how awesome that had been, how impressed he was and that he’d lov- _really liked_ watching her handle the situation. He felt like he could rant for hours about every tiny detail, the exact way the light had caught the knife as she held it aloft, the squelch of the butterfly being impaled followed by the steady thunk of the knife burying itself in wood. Hell, even the way her arm had tensed and rippled from the force of the impact had etched itself forever more in his mind. Holy hell, those muscles.

 

“Oh, yeah… Um. She said you were feeling down and asked me to come cheer you up. I guess she was right?” He laughed nervously, rubbing at the back of his neck with one hand and struggling to maintain eye contact. _Pull yourself together already, nothing actually happened, it’s fine now. No heart, stop racing. Stomach, stop squirming._

If Marinette noticed his odd behaviour, she didn’t bother with mentioning it. Instead, she gave him another bright smile, this one more genuine and less sinister than the last.

 

“Oh! I am so sorry about all that, I’m feeling much better now!” She didn’t mention that stabbing the akuma and burning the body had been the highlight of her week. She didn’t need to; it had been the highlight of Adrien’s week too. Sure, if Tikki hadn’t hidden when she did then there was a possibility that Hawkmoth might have discovered Ladybugs true identity, but that hadn’t happened and now everything was fine! More than fine! In fact, she had Adrien with her there now and he wasn’t running for the hills to get as far away from her as he could so that must have been a good sign. “I was in the middle of cooking; you can go on up to my room or something if you want?”

 

“Actually, can I help?” He turned his legendary puppy eyes on her, so eager and full of hope. He didn’t know he was doing it, but he was and Marinette was suffering in the best way possible.

 

“Um. I get pretty possessive over the kitchen, so that’s maybe not such a good idea. You can still watch though. If you want to. Or not.” He hardly even hesitated as he followed her back into the kitchen. Whatever he’d been expecting when he arrived, it hadn’t been that and like hell he was going to leave her alone after something like that. For all he knew, Hawkmoth would try to target her again as soon as she was alone. Until he was 100% certain that she was feeling better, he wasn’t going anywhere. Obviously, he’d have to leave at some point, if only to come back as Chat later on.

 

He wondered if she’d tell Chat what happened, his mind going blank when he thought about how he should act. He couldn’t exactly admit he knew, could he? _No_ , he told himself, _you can’t, you weren’t going to tell her who you are yet._

 

He quickly discovered that Marinette really hadn’t been lying when she’d told him she was possessive, he had to practically jam himself in a corner to stay out of her way. Every time he found himself where she needed to be he’d get a roll of her eyes at best and at one point, when he’d cheekily tried to sneak a taste of the stew, she’d smacked the back of his hand with a ladle. He was just glad that the ladle hadn’t been resting in the hot liquid beforehand. So of course, the poised, polite child he’d been raised to be, he’d decided to steer clear and let her finish in peace without him interfering. 

 

That resolution managed to last all of thirty seconds before he made a game of finding ways to subtly annoy her. It started with him discretely moving one item or another, at first she made this cute little confused frowny face but she cottoned on to what he was doing pretty quickly. Too soon in his opinion. Then, he moved on to seeing how many things he could switch around while her back was turned. It wasn’t many since she moved fast, but it was enough. Like the ultimate game of grandma’s footsteps.

 

He only stopped messing around when he felt Plagg prod him from inside his jacket, as if to say ‘ _hey idiot, your Chat is showing_ ’. If it was Plagg telling him he needed to stop in broad daylight and it wasn’t about him pining over his lady, he didn’t dare doubt him. Even then, he found himself hiding a smile behind his hand, just watching her. She only took five minutes to finish up after he stopped pestering her, having already prepared most of the ingredients before he’d arrived. She’d needed to run and grab some new potatoes and a clean chopping board though. The other ones were currently indisposed.

 

Leaving the pot to do whatever it was that it was supposed to do, she took off, all but dragging him upstairs along with her, most likely just to stop him from trying to sneak some again. Could she really blame him for trying? It would have smelled enticing to any normal person, but to a hungry boy turned cat themed vigilante? It was pure temptation.

 

She pulled out her phone, fiddling with it for a brief moment before tucking it away again, having set an alarm so she didn’t get distracted and forget about the stew. A habit forged from cruel experience, may her failures be lost but never forgotten.

 

“So, since you’re here, do you want to help out with something?” she picked her way across the room, scooping up a bag which he knew housed the majority of her sewing supplies and pulling out a pile of black fabrics from a draw.

 

“Sure thing!” He lit up on the inside, careful to keep his outward appearance fairly neutral, if a little bit eager. He’d figured out what she meant by ‘something’ by the colour of the fabric. The Chat Noir themed hoodie! He’d been wondering what had become of it, having not heard Marinette talk about it at all in weeks, only having mentioned it once since she’d first shown him.

 

(Weeks? Had it really been that long? It didn’t feel it, he’d been having too much fun, time was escaping him.)

 

“So, I’ve been trying to work on this idea for ages now but I swear, I have _never_ had as much trouble finding the right material as I have for this one, and it’s only a hoodie! Everything I could afford was either too stiff or too thin for what I wanted, but then last week I found this tiny little shop which had a couple of fabrics that were just _perfect_ for the lining and the main body of the thing and now I can finally start working on finishing the design but I just wanted a second opinion before I actually started to put anything together, preferably someone like you who has experience with clothes.”

 

“Um, Marinette, I just wear the clothes, I don’t really know much about making them…” He felt bad that he wouldn’t be as helpful as she’d thought he would. Sure he’d picked up a thing or two about what worked and what didn’t over the years but he was by no means anywhere near an expert, whatever he knew wouldn’t even compare to Marinette, she was dedicated to the craft and passionate to boot, where to Adrien it was more of a job. A necessity to keep his father off his back for as long as possible.

 

“Exactly,” she beamed “you wear the clothes, you know what’s comfortable more than anyone! The last thing I want is to put all this together just to find that it’s all scratchy or doesn’t sit right or that it’s too thick or too thin. I know it’s only a hoodie, but I just want to get it right, y’know?” She was starting to get giddy, working herself up into the state that he’d heard Alya affectionately dub ‘design mode’. Apparently, once she was in that particular state of mind, it would take a miracle to break her out of it again. Legend told of a time where she went almost nine whole days without a whole night’s sleep, only stopping when her project was complete. Copious amounts of caffeine had been consumed and Marinette had slept for twenty six hours straight afterwards, but she’d done it all the same.

 

He agreed to help, offering his opinion on the fabrics, she’d chosen well, they were soft against the skin but heavy enough that they’d be on the right side of snug, and they wouldn’t fade easily no matter how many times they got washed. She’d asked for his opinions on the design, but he honestly hadn’t been able to pick any flaws in it. Maybe if he was more like his father he’d have been able to at least find something she could improve on. As it was, he completely blown away at how much effort she was putting in just for something made for him, for Chat. He knew she must at least tolerate him, but to see her going all out for this one tribute to his alter ego really drove home the fact that he had friends, good friends, on both sides of the mask, whichever mask he may be wearing.

 

Eventually he had to leave, having been called back home for dinner by Nathalie, who sounded about as cheerful as ever. Really, it inspired him to leave if only to bask in the kind, loving aura around Nathalie. Ha. Saying goodbye to Marinette, who broke out of her trance just long enough to walk him downstairs, was an event in itself. He was ambushed by Sabine who, surprising nobody but him, pushed yet another bag full of bakery goods into his arms and promptly disappeared before he could so much as think about turning it down. If he wasn’t careful, he might end up putting the Dupain-Chengs out of business just from the sheer amount of free food they kept giving him whenever he visited.

 

At least Marinette seemed happier, she wasn’t in danger of being targeted by Hawkmoth anymore and she’d certainly seemed like her usual bubbly self towards the end. He’d had the fright of his life when he’d spotted the akuma, his heart had dropped right to the pit of his stomach and then… well. He’d never seen anything quite like _that._ It was the sort of thing that Alya would just go nuts over, if she ever found out. He was a little sad that he hadn’t managed to snag any of the stew she’d been making, but he did have a whole bag of food so he wasn’t too upset.

 

She even remembered to tend to her stew when the alarm she’d set on her phone went off, keeping it warm without letting it overcook, ready and waiting for Chats visit later that night.

 

 

 

**Somewhere, in a dark, secluded Parisian attic:**

 

Hawkmoth: Ah yes, my little akuma, fly away and make… what the- what? This… Who would even do that? WHAT DID MY AKUMA EVER DO TO YOU LITTLE GIRL? WHO GAVE YOU THE RIGHT-

 

From that day on, Hawkmoth vowed to never allow any akuma within a hundred-foot radius of Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've written up to chapter 8 i hardly even remember writing this


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i am weak i couldn't wait to post this i'm not sorry

As soon as Adrien got home from the bakery, he knew something was off. Everything around him held a tension that hadn’t been there when he’d left that morning. He could see it on the faces around him, the way the staff looked at him with a poorly disguised edge of pity. They only did that whenever his father did something especially bad, like the time he’d booked his schedule for six weeks solid during the Summer holiday and hadn’t included any recreation time, only eat, sleep, work, repeat. If it was anything even half as bad as that, he had no idea what he’d do.

 

He quickly found out that no, it wasn’t half as bad. It was worse. Far, far worse.

 

He didn’t even know what to think when he walked into the dining hall to see his father sitting at the head of the table, Nathalie already standing dutifully by his side. He took his place near, but not too near where his father was sat and waited. He just knew this wasn’t going to be anything good and he hated that even after all these years of being let down over and over again, he still felt some scant trace of hope. Hope that this time would be different from the last, that maybe his father was going to apologise for calling him a disappointment the last time they’d spoken face to face. His father had probably forgotten all about that already though.

 

“Adrien.”

 

Any and all hope took a running leap and nosedived straight out the window, never to be seen again. That was his father’s business voice, the bad one. The one that always accompanied his impending doom for any who was on the receiving end.

 

“Father.” His tone was equally dry, just as cold and empty of emotion.

 

“You’re going to be modelling the teen line again this season,” oh no. He could guess where this was going, he was practically 18 already, with his height, weight and figure he should be moving on to the adult line already. Truth be told, if you were to go by his measurements he should have done that last year. “You’ll need to get into shape so you can fit the requisite sizing’s, which means a revised meal plan.”

 

He wasn’t an idiot. ‘getting in shape’ would likely involve losing more weight. Exercise had never been the issue even without counting his time as Chat. That meant eating even less than he already did. Even with his visits to the bakery, he wasn’t eating nearly as much as he knew he should be.

 

“Why can’t I just model for the adult lines? Wouldn’t that be easier?” A fruitless effort, but if Adrien didn’t offer at least some token resistance his father might mistake it for complacency and turn it back around on him later on. Once Gabriel Agreste had made a decision, nothing short of divine intervention would get him to change his mind.

 

His father pinched the bridge of his nose, as if what Adrien had suggested was so outlandish that he had to banish the very thought from his mind in case it came back to haunt him in the dead of the night, chanting ominously and holding a single lit candle.

 

“Ordinarily, yes. However, due to prior circumstances, this is a necessity.” His father didn’t even blink, hadn’t even considered what Adrien had said before turning him down. When had his father become so cold towards him? When had he stopped valuing what Adrien wanted like a real, living human, or treated him as anything more than a mobile mannequin or a full time puppet to do with as he wished?

 

_Nino’s going to go crazy if he finds out about this._

 

“But sir, there are plenty of other models who could fulfil the terms of the agreement. Last season was supposed to be Adrien’s last run on the teens line. Even Adrien’s dietician expressed concern about the new regime and said that what he’s eating now isn’t enough for someone of his age. If you give me just one day then I’m sure I can-“

 

“Enough. Nathalie, this is not up for discussion. You’re dismissed for now, wait for me in the office.”

 

It said a lot that the secretary cared more about his health and wellbeing than his own father. Nathalie had worked under his father for years, she’d seen as his father had grown more and more distant towards his son. She’d watched on as he slowly forgot to think about Adrien as a human being, yet alone someone he was supposed to care for. There had been a time when it could be said that Gabriel Agreste still genuinely cared about his only son, when he’d been the one to remind Nathalie of Adrien’s birthday, not the other way round.

 

Adrien, for his part, had had enough of it already; he’d had a long day, having spent half the day trying to act as a barrier between Chloe and Marinette and had spent his afternoon posing in front of a camera, being poked and prodded by almost total strangers instead of being at school learning, like he wanted to be. If things carried on down that path, then he’d be in the hospital, or worse, by the time his father finally saw what he was doing to his own son.

 

“No.”

 

“No?” If his father had been icy before, he was positively glacial now. The vision before him was one that would have sent the Adrien of three years ago scarpering away with his tail tucked between his legs. Gabriel Agreste, one eyebrow arched and his fingers laced together, leaning forwards on the table just enough to look more intimidating than usual without losing any of his poise. Now, the sight just made him deeply sad.

 

“I won’t agree to this father, get another model to fill in for me, someone who won’t have to starve themselves just to fit into the clothes. Even Nathalie can see how wrong this is, why can’t you?” A bubbling feeling deep in his gut told him that there was no way that he was going to get out of this unpunished, but he couldn’t find it within himself to care. He was angry, years of resentment boiling just under his skin, itching to be let loose.

 

“Wrong? Adrien, if you’re going to act like a child then maybe I should consider treating you like one.”

 

“At least then you’d be treating me like an actual human being! Do you even know how old I am? Have you even looked at me recently? I _can’t_ do the teen line anymore, not without putting myself at risk. Even if I could, I still wouldn’t.” the feeling that had been itching at him came to the surface, his anger and resentment spilling from every pore of his body, every shake of his voice, and it meant nothing. Not to his father.

 

Gabriel Agreste rose to his feet, pushing away from the table with an air of finality that was meant to tell Adrien that it was time to stop. In the past, this was where Adrien would always give in, bow before the towering presence of his father. The furthest he’d ever gotten. But this wasn’t the past, this was now. Adrien was done with being used, and dammit, if Marinette could stab an akuma without getting possessed, he could stand up to his father. Somehow, after seeing Marinette stand up for herself so valiantly, he felt that he could do the same. His princess was lending him her strength, even if she didn’t know she was doing it.

 

“Father, please. I don’t ask for much and somehow I find myself not even getting that. I’m not saying you don’t care, I’m just asking you to listen to what I want.”

 

Gabriel’s eyes narrowed, his posture as tense as Adrien felt, but it was better than the outright dismissal he was expecting.

 

“And what _do_ you want?”

 

“I want to be able to make my own choices, I want to have the freedom that if my friends, friends I likely wouldn’t even _have_ if I hadn’t started going to public school, if they wanted me to go out with them then I could. They shouldn’t have to memorise my whole schedule just to get to see me. I want to stay in school more instead of being pulled out every other day for something _you_ want _me_ to do. I want to be able to eat what I want without having to run it by someone else first, or have _any_ control over my own life.” He was breathing heavily, half from the adrenaline produced from standing up to his father, half from forgetting to breathe halfway through his speech.

 

Gabriel simply nodded. “Very well. If that’s how you truly feel, I’ll talk to Nathalie about moving you on to the adult line sooner.”

 

Adrien opened his mouth to protest, angry that he was being brushed off with such a poor excuse for a compromise, but just as he started to speak his father cut over him.

 

“As for your diet, we’ll see. Since it seems that you won’t be in the teen line then there’s little point in implementing the new diet regime, so until other arrangements are made, you will stick to your current meal plan. Your schedule is fully booked at least two months in advance and it would be simply ruinous to even consider cancelling, however I’ll pass on word to Nathalie to see if we can’t lessen your load in the future, is that all?”

 

“Yes, father.” Perhaps it was rude not to thank him, but he didn’t. He shouldn’t have to be asking for any of these things in the first place. Besides, his father had almost sounded bored, listing off the promises as if he’d done it a hundred times before.

 

Adrien felt himself slump in relief, sitting back down in his chair. He hadn’t even realised that he’d stood up himself until just then, nor had he noticed the lack of actual food on the table until a nervous looking waiter swooped in and hurriedly deposited a rather lacklustre meal in front of him. He had no doubt that it was supposed to be the first of his newest restricted diet, but hopefully, if his father hadn’t been spouting yet more empty promises, it would be the last.

 

Gabriel clearly had actual plans to eat at the table with Adrien for a change, since he also had a meal brought out to him. His actually looked like a wholesome, decent sized meal that actually tasted of something, which Adrien felt envious and ever so slightly resentful of. Of course, Gabriel Agreste wasn’t a model, he didn’t have to watch every calorie, but Adrien knew better than to push his luck and ask for more. The real difficulty would be trying to get his lack of a proper meal past Marinette, later since no matter what, he still fully intended on having a black cat pay her a visit that evening.

 

Adrien knew that his victory was a tentative one at best. As much as he wanted to believe that he’d made his father see the light and actually start looking at him like family rather than a stranger or worse, like an employee, he doubted that was the case. In all likelihood, he’d still try and barter with Adrien over his own freedoms, or maybe not even with him, probably _about_ him rather than _with_ him. Even then, he was working on the assumption that his father intended on following through with his words.

 

The average dinner in Agreste mansion consisted of two courses. The first would be the main, the second would be either a light salad or a cheeseboard, much to his chagrin. It kept Plagg happy, at least. He rarely got to have an actual dessert after dinner (or ever at all), other than at events where his father couldn’t stop him. Today he only had one course, a tiny one that was smaller than his usual meals. He thought that a dish that size would look more comfortable in a Michelin star restaurant than anywhere near him. That new diet would have absolutely killed him, he had no idea what his father had been thinking in giving it the go-ahead. At least he’d have had Marinettes nightly food stores to fall back on if he’d really had to. He hoped that it wouldn’t come to that though.

 

That was just one of the reasons why he treasured his visits to Marinettes room and the bakery, though by no means his only reason. Marinette was an amazing girl, kind, loving and strong. She reminded him of his lady, but any real resemblance he’d long since pushed to the back of his mind. Ladybug wasn’t ready to share her identity with him and he respected that, it would be unfair to his classmate to try and push his image of Ladybug onto her. The last thing he wanted was to accidently guess who she was or a repeat of the Lady Wifi incident. At least Ladybug couldn’t make fun of him for mistaking Marinette for her, if anything he she’d probably be flattered.

 

His father excused himself almost as soon as his cutlery hit his plate for the last time with a small ‘clink’, with how busy he kept himself, even this one meal was likely taken on time he didn’t have. Why he didn’t just hire a few more interns or assistants to lessen his workload he had no idea.

 

Adrien had finished eating quickly, long before his father had. But he’d stuck around until he’d excused himself just in case he’d had something more to say. His father had left without a word, but had paused long enough to give Adrien an appraising look-over before leaving. It was more than he was used to so he took that as a positive sign that he’d finally gotten through to his father, if only a little. He didn’t raise his hopes up too high, that was just asking for disappointment. Instead, he hurried away to his room to let Plagg eat before heading over to Marinettes.

 

“You okay kid? You had those… things again back there.” Plagg launched himself straight towards his cheese hoard. After much persuasion and some force-feeding, Adrien had convinced Plagg that camembert wasn’t the only edible cheese in the world and had set up a secret storage compartment across the room, far, far away from his bed. It used to mostly contained hard cheeses, the kind that didn’t need to be kept refrigerated all the time, but he had eventually given in to the kwami’s nagging and managed to fit a minifridge in there, safe where not even the cleaners would find it and Plaggs precious, disgusting cheese could live. The hard cheese made for good emergency rations though.

 

“Plagg, you know what feelings are.”

 

“Do I? Do I really, Adrien? Who do you think I am? I’m hailed as a god in some places!” Adrien had to stifle a giggle at Plaggs antics, the kwami may play around and irritate him whenever possible, but deep down in his little destructive heart, he cared an awful lot. Plagg had been there for Adrien through his worst days, even going as far as to tell him stories from his times with other Chat Noirs to distract him, and that cat hated talking too much about his predecessors. “And don’t think I didn’t see what you did there!”

 

“Oh liege! Oh wise and powerful cheese lord, bequeath unto me the holiest of blessings!” Plagg made no effort to hide his disdain, giving his chosen the unblinking cat stare until he stopped making such a fool of himself. It was the kwami equivalent of flipping the bird. “But seriously Plagg, I’m fine.”

 

“You gonna visit the girl who smells like cookies again today?” He asked, through a mouth chock full of pungent cheese.

 

“Y-you’ve smelled Marinette?” Adrien spluttered, wondering exactly when Plagg had a chance to do that and _why._

 

“Kid, I can smell chocolate chip cookies a mile off. They’re repulsive, but an old friend of mine has been obsessed with them for so long, sometimes I swear I can smell them in my _sleep._ ”

 

“Knowing you, I don’t doubt it.”

 

“Damn right, now we going or not?”

 

“Yeah, c’mon Plagg, claws out!”

 

Mask, check.

 

Ears, check.

 

Skin tight leather super suit? Check!

 

Chat Noir was a-go! In his ear, he could hear the faint sounds of Plagg calling him a dork. Instead of gracing him with an answer, he headed out towards where his princess awaited his presence. He hadn’t seen her much that week, what with the constant slew of akuma attacks. He’d been half expecting Plagg to refuse to transform just to get a day off and was infinitely grateful that just this once, Plagg had put Adrien’s comfort over his own.

 

He wound his way through the Parisian night, trying to keep a low profile as he got close to his destination. He even made doubly sure that there was no one looking when he leapt across to his princess’s balcony, as he always did. He’d spent enough time being hounded without the mask to realise that it would spell disaster not just for him, but Marinette too. Especially if he was caught sneaking into her room at such odd hours. The two of them may know that there was nothing elicit going on, but he doubted that he Parisian media (and Alya) would believe that for two seconds. Never mind the threat of Hawkmoth trying to use her to get to him, Alya would find all new and inventive ways to skin him alive before Hawkmoth could so much as sneeze in her direction if she thought there was anything going on between them. Which there wasn’t. The evenings were the only time he tended to get to himself, that was all.

 

A knock on glass and thirty seconds later, he found himself sat squarely on her chaise. Marinette hovered nearby, packing away what she’d been doing. He got the briefest of glances of a pile of black cloth and was surprised at the headway she’d made on the hoodie in such a short amount of time. Alya was right, Marinette in Design Mode was incredible.

 

When she finished packing away, instead of sitting down next to him like she normally would, she remained standing. “Hey kitty, you eaten yet?”

 

“A little, it wasn’t as much as I’d of liked if I’m being honest.” Which he was, painfully so. Almost as painful as hunger cramps could be after a long patrol with Ladybug or a particularly taxing akuma. That didn’t stop Marinettes disapproving glare. He hadn’t told her too much about his home life, not out of fear she’d figure him out, he’d actually quite like that, but more because he’d seen how fiery she could get and he didn’t want her doing to his father what she’d done to the butterfly. She also didn’t want to tear away whatever image she’d built up of his father, since she so obviously admired his work. Marinette was uncannily good at inferring things about him though, so whether or not she’d figured out that he wasn’t the one in control of his meals or if she thought he purposely skipped out on eating he didn’t know. She hadn’t brought it up yet so he hadn’t told her.

 

Another reason to respect her, she never pushed him. In the same way that Ladybug never pushed him when it came to his identity behind the mask, Marinette didn’t either. Almost any other girl would have at least tried to question him about who he was, or even tried to trick it out of him, but his two girls didn’t, never even tried. At least one of them didn’t want to know yet, as much as he’d love her to.

 

“Well, lucky you, I just so happened to have used my mystic powers to foresee this exact situation and made dinner for us both!” She clapped her hands together and twirled, sweeping her arms out towards her desk where there sat a tray with two plates, each slightly steaming. An alluring scent he’d smelled only hours before, only that much better.

 

“Is that stew? Did you make me stew princess?” He didn’t think he’d ever been so excited to eat something so simple before, having been denied any earlier in the day. Though now that he thought about it, no matter how good it had smelled, uncooked stew was basically water with lumps of vegetable and whatever and probably wouldn’t have been all that great.

 

Her face was a sight to behold, he took a moment to take her in while she wasn’t looking, too caught up in fussing over the food. She was practically glowing, the light falling across her hair and her face just so. Ethereal, Transcendent, _beautiful._ Not just on the surface level, though he would happily admit that she had her fair share of good looks and then some to spare, but on a deeper level. How he could have not noticed her for so long? He’d missed out on befriending such a wonderful person, a girl who was always there for him, who supported him in ways she likely didn’t even think twice about. Yeah sure, he’d thought of her as a friend ever since the umbrella incident, but he’d never taken the time to truly take notice of her until much, much later.

 

The girl who had just set down a piping hot bowl and a partially open pouch of ashes in front of him with a manic gleam in her eye that reminded him all too much of what had happened earlier that day.

 

He was not complaining. Not at all. Now he’ get to hear Marinette try and explain it to him all over again.

 

“Okay so you’re going to either love this or hate this but it feels like the sort of thing you should really know?”

 

“I do hope there’s no _claws_ for alarm.” He winked, punning to cover for his smile, which he really had no business to be doing at that moment, but otherwise let he continue. Looking up at her from under his lashes as he brought his bowl closer to his face, he didn’t want to spill anything on her chaise after all. He’d already managed to drop a jam tart facedown once the week before. She hadn’t cared much but he’d felt awful about it. How she’d managed to get that stain out he may never know.

 

“Well… Okay so I had a bad day and I may have gotten a teeny tiny bit emotional.” She gestured with her hands as she spoke, pinching her fingers together and squinting to go along with what she was saying. “And well, uh… istabbedanakumabutterflyandburnedthebody.”

 

Well, she wasn’t lying.

 

She twisted so that she wasn’t directly facing him, but he could see her watching him for a reaction from the corner of her eyes. She looked like she was braced for the worst, expecting to be scolded for being a total badass. Nah.

 

“Snrk.” His hand flew to his mouth to catch the stew that had just come flying back out, slipping through his fingers and plopping back into the bowl with an inelegant splash. “W-well-pfft- thanks for telling me! Pfft-ha… hoo boy, you’re amazing you know that?” He couldn’t handle it, her looking all down on herself like she’d just admitted some deadly sin, well, murdering a butterfly was probably some sort of bad, but he thought it was well justified. It was an evil butterfly after all. He shouldn’t have laughed, he knew that, but he just found it so… funny! He’d been there, a witness! It was hilarious.

 

“Chat! It’s not _that_ funny!” she slapped him lightly on the arm, or at least, she’d meant to slap him lightly. It took a second for him to realise that _owch, that hurt._ Super suit or not, his princess could pack a punch. He’d been hit by akumas more gently than that. “Well, uh. What do I do with the ashes?”

 

“Keep them, put them in a jar and display it on the mantelpiece. Turn it into a family heirloom, pass it from parent to child for generations to come.” It’s what he wanted to do. A forever reminder of how awesome she was

 

“Chat!”

 

“Well… want to scatter the ashes?”

 

She looked at him like he’d just sprouted wings. He’d like wings, wouldn’t really fit with the Chat Noir image though. Seemed like something that would suit Ladybug more if he was being honest. Not the point, he didn’t have wings but what he did have was a pretty girl giving him a bemused look.

 

“Well, we can go and scatter the ashes in the Seine since you obviously don’t want to keep them. _After_ I’ve eaten. I’m a growing cat don’t you know.”

 

He grinned, happily hoovering up the rest of the stew before she could berate him. She made some sarcastic remark under her breath about strays but otherwise followed his lead. 

 

Three refills later and he felt absolutely, wonderfully full. What a novelty. Maybe Marinette was giving him a strange look, but what did that matter in the face of a good meal with great company?

 

“Shall we go?”

 

“Oh mon dieu you were really serious.”

 

He stood and bowed down low, one hand crossed in front of him and the other tucked behind his back, grinning the whole while. “Absolutely.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> He Must Suffer


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Even the anime wasn't safe

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i gift you this a touch early because i love you and i want to let you know that i am going to France from the 12th to the 21st so that's 9 days of writing thats gonna happen with no wifi to distract me (i'm looking at the positive side here)

A-           Hey, can we talk?

N-           Sure dude! ur dad being a dick again?

A-           Kinda, that’s not what I wanted to talk about though. Meet at my place after school?

N-           Bro, u kno ur dead if u get caught with me there rite?

                U sure u wanna risk it

A-           Yh, need somewhere private 

N-           ooo suspicious! Np, on ur head not mine lmao

 

Adrien looked at his phone for perhaps the hundredth time since he’d first started the conversation that morning. He’d spent the whole day at school feeling antsy and avoiding Nino as much as he could without being overly rude.

 

He was going to tell Nino he was Chat Noir. He had to, it’d been almost two weeks since his lady had given him her permission to reveal himself to people he trusted. The first week he’d spent internally debating who to tell and the second spent trying to catch Nino alone. For a guy who was always complaining about how busy Adrien was, he wasn’t half busy himself. It was made more difficult by the fact that he kept chickening out. A lot. He’d had a lot on his mind, what with everything going on with his father as well.

 

He wouldn’t do that today though. He was practically bursting at the seams with how much he actually wanted to do this. He wasn’t going to back out, not for anything. Not when his father was gone for the next week, not when Nino was going to turn up at any minute. No choice but to go through with it, no backing out and absolutely no-

 

N-           You gonna let me in or am I gonna have to climb thru a window again?

 

Oh damn it, he’d spaced out yet again. He’d been spacing out more and more over the last few weeks, something that constantly exasperated his friends and got him in trouble at work. Even Nathalie had picked up on it.

 

Somewhere between racing to the door before Nino really did try and come through one of the armed and alarmed windows and opening the door Adrien finally managed to set his nerves to steel. He _was_ going to tell Nino.

 

“Hey, you okay? You’ve been out of whack all week man.” Truth be told, Nino had noticed Adrien acting even weirder than usual for almost a fortnight but was fairly used to his ups and downs and usually just waited for Adrien to come to him unless something seemed seriously off. Awkward fidgeting and sidelong glances weren’t quite worth calling out the big guns for though.

 

“Yeah man, just… come up to my room, I gotta show you something.”

 

Nino walked with Adrien up to his room with a practiced ease and confidence that came from years of sneaking in and avoiding all the various security systems. Adrien tried to quell the butterflies flapping up a hurricane in his stomach, knowing that what he was about to do was a make or break sort of deal on one of his most longstanding and solid friendships. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Nino, of course he did or he wouldn’t even be bracing himself for this conversation in the first place. But the thing about insecurities is that they don’t much care for the truth.

 

Adrien shut the main door to his room and let his head droop forwards and knock against the door slightly before finally turning around to face his friend.

 

“Okay now I am definitely suspicious.” Nino raised an eyebrow at Adrien expectantly, knowing just from the way Adrien was acting that he was probably about to go off on a rant of some sort and he would have to try and decipher whatever he could from the inevitable torrent of words.

 

“Okay so there’s something I need to tell you and you’re probably gonna get mad at me for not telling you about this years ago but I wasn’t allowed to until two weeks ago and even then I wasn’t sure if I really should because, well it’s a really big thing y’know? And I know you’re one of my best friends and I’d trust you with anything, that’s why I’m telling you now and you’re the first one I’m telling because, well, yeah. You get me?”

 

“Not at all. You didn’t actually tell me anything dude.” Adrien, upon realising that yes, Nino was right, turned beet red, having just rambled on pointlessly. Nino just looked quietly amused. “Are you coming out to me or something?”

 

“YES!” Nino caught on quick because yes that was exactly what he was getting at he was trying to come out as Chat and wow no nope he just realised that Nino wasn’t living in his head he didn’t know he meant the hero thing he probably thought he was coming out in the other way and that was not what he was trying to do at all. “WAIT NO! Not in that way but in a different way but it’s the same sort of thing I guess? Oh dammit I suck at this.” He was on the verge of totally breaking down, only Nino’s patience was stopping him from launching himself out the window and making a break for it, never to be seen again.

 

He took a second to assess the situation. His words were failing him, they just weren’t coming out the way he wanted them to. Call it nerves or his abysmal social skills, or maybe even something else entirely, but he’d have to just… show him. Before he started to regret his decision.

 

One trembling hand found its way to his jacket. He paused for half a beat, acutely aware of Nino’s critical gaze, before taking the plunge and pulling it aside, revealing…

 

Nothing.

 

What the heck? Plagg had been in his pocket just a minute ago, he’d felt him wriggling his stinky little cat butt!

 

“Dude.” Nino was giving him a flat look.

 

Adrien was mortified. Maybe that’s why Ladybug hadn’t wanted them to reveal their identities. When it happened their kwami’s disappeared. Or maybe it was worse. Maybe Chat Noir had never existed and he’d just been having vivid hallucinations as a result of his troubled upbringing for the last four years-

 

“Oh, hey there Plagg. Long-time no see.”

 

What.

 

“WHAT.” Plagg was hovering just behind Adrien, cackling like he’d just played the prank of the century. Adrien felt the moment his brain bluescreened, systems rebooting. 3…2… 1… “YOU KNEW?”

 

“Well. Yeah man, you’re not exactly subtle.” Nino was doing a very good job of keeping a straight face, he’d have more than enough time to tease Adrien relentlessly when the poor boy wasn’t in shock.

 

“How long?” Adrien demanded, grabbing Nino by the shoulders and practically shaking him, as if that would get him a faster answer. He was half expecting to snap out of a daydream any second, or to wake up from a coma or something and discover that Chat Noir and Ladybug had been an elaborate dream, a figment of his addled mind.

 

Nino looked up to the ceiling and started counting on his fingers in an overly exaggerated fashion. “Well I suspected it since the whole Horrificator thing but I guess I knew for sure about a year ago when you left your jacket and bag with me in your room one time, that’s when I met Plagg too.” He was lying. He’d known pretty much from the beginning, but he didn’t think Adriens ego could take a hit like that.

 

Adrien remembered that day in the same way he remembered all his mistakes, in excruciating detail. He’d managed to sneak Nino in a lot all things considered, through a combination of staff who didn’t like his father banning Adriens friend from the house and his fathers’ emotional and physical distance from his son. It had just been pure bad luck on that particular day that Adrien had been called away to his father’s office over a single poor grade while Nino was there (a B- just didn’t cut it apparently). He’d been too flustered from nearly getting caught with Nino to think about Plagg, instead running out of the room without a second thought. It had been a hot day, hot enough that him turning back to grab his jacket would have been plain weird so he’d just decided to trust Plagg to stay hidden. Obviously he’d put too much trust in his kwami if Nino had found him.

 

“And… you’re not mad at me?” Ah, the crippling fear of rejection, it just never knows when to quit. Even when Nino had just flat-out admitted that he’d known for ages that he was Chat Noir, he was still terrified that he’d be pushed away. As if Nino was vindictive enough to wait a whole year to enact revenge for some hurt feelings.

 

“Not even a little, Plagg told me back then that not even Ladybug knew who you really are. Am I honestly the first person you’ve told? Not even Ladybug?” Adrien nodded dumbly, still trying to process that not only had Nino discovered Plagg at some point, but instead of running away screaming had apparently taken it in stride and actually just sat down and had a chat about Chat. 

 

“Damn because the way you and Mari have been acting recently I just kinda figured…”

 

“Wait what’s Marinette got to do with this?” Adrien must have missed something because one minute Nino was talking about Ladybug and the next he’d brought Marinette into things, which was weird. Thinking about Marinette had the unfortunate side effect of him feeling a strange pang in his gut. Nino obviously wasn’t in the mood to explain himself, since he just carried on as if he hadn’t said anything to begin with.

 

“Aw man do you know how cool this actually is? Like DUDE. I’ve had to hold off saying this for AGES but YOU’RE CHAT NOIR!”

 

Adrien laughed nervously because yes. Yes, he was Chat Noir. Nino, who before had been worried that there was genuinely something wrong with Adrien and had been toning down his general excitable loudness accordingly, had started practically leaping around the room all while exclaiming how amazing his friend was in a thousand different ways.

 

Some of the tension Adrien had felt for years melted away within moments, quickly being replaced by embarrassment. He just wasn’t used to this many genuine compliments at once. As a model he had fans, sure, but he hardly ever interacted with them and even when he did their enthusiasm was often overbearing. As Chat he was always second best, the people of Paris, no matter how many times Ladybug said otherwise, only saw him as a sidekick. The Copycat incident showed him exactly how fickle the affection of the masses was. In short, having the guy he’d only minutes before expected to storm out and never see again singing his praises was too much for him, who couldn’t take a compliment unless his life depended on it.

 

It took a while, but Nino eventually tired himself out, collapsing face first on Adrien’s bed. By that time Adrien had transcended the mortal plains and had joined the legion of tomato people. Plagg was laughing his ass off from atop his cheese mountain.

 

“Dude.” Nino’s voice was muffled by a mouthful of bedcovers, but he made absolutely zero effort to move to talk more clearly.

 

“Yes?”

 

“Dude.”

 

“ _Yes?”_

 

“You’re Chat Noir.”

 

“Yeah, I know.”

 

“Right, cool. Wanna watch cat videos?”

 

Adrien almost said yes, until he caught the smug look on his friend and most trusted confidants face. His mind provided him with a perfectly edited cinematic montage of all the subtle (and not so subtle) digs at his double identity throughout the past year. The slightly odd tradition of watching cat videos together was just one of many now obvious hints Nino had dropped.

 

Just how oblivious had he been?

 

Well…

 

He’d just assumed that Nino was a Chat fanboy. The cat eared beanie hat? A nice, if quietly ironic present. The time he’d fallen asleep round Nino’s house and had woken up with cat whiskers drawn on his face in eyeliner? A funny prank, Nino had laughed about it with Alya for days after while Adrien had just been glad that he’d used eyeliner that washed off easily and not sharpie. The Chat plushie keyring he’d gotten on his birthday? He’d just thought it was cute. The dvd copy of the ‘cats’ musical he’d just thought was a little eccentric, or that Nino knew how much Adrien secretly loved musicals and stage shows.

 

Oh dear lord.

 

Even the anime wasn’t safe from Nino.

 

Tokyo mew mew, fruits basket, shugo chara, [Natsume Yuujinchou](http://myanimelist.net/anime/4081/Natsume_Yuujinchou) … all those cat boys…

 

“Dude, you look like the walls just started talking to you or something.”

 

“Alto… Kyo… Ichigo… Even Nyanko-sensei…”

 

“Oh god anything but the anime. No more anime, _please_.” Nino, though he didn’t hate anime, wasn’t as much of a fan as Adrien was and had been subjected to long, painful marathons of entire titles at once. When some shows *coughOnePiececough* had over 700 episodes… yeah. Nino suffered for Adrien’s sins.

 

Meanwhile, Adrien was having his midlife crisis. There was no denying it, at the tender age of seventeen, he was breaking down. He couldn’t believe that Nino would betray him in this way, using his precious anime against him. To think that he’d been so worried over how Nino would react, only to find out that he’d been playing him like a fiddle this whole time.

 

The traitor had to pay.

 

 

 “Nope. No. We are so not doing this. You put that thing back where it came from or so help me-“ Nino’s protests were cut off when Adrien pounced with a single gleeful cry. Water flew everywhere as the final balloon burst, dousing Nino entirely. How things had devolved into a water fight in a hidden corner of the garden he had no idea. One moment he was chasing the traitor with a pillow, the next they were in the garden attacking each other.

 

They were both armed with two buckets of water each and a hose in the no man’s land between them. Nino made a quip or two about cats and water, only to be blasted right in the face with the hose. Adrien decided that this was great fun, and started chasing his unfortunate victim around the garden with the hose, both laughing like a man possessed the whole time.

 

He was Chat Noir, as if Nino ever even stood a chance against him! (And like hell was he going to hold back now and Nino knew it)

 

A voice interrupted them, just as Adrien was in the process of tipping a bucket of freezing water down Nino’s back. He froze where he stood, recognising Nathalie’s voice but not her words. All he could hear was a chorus of _caught, caught, caught._

 

“Adrien, more of your friends have arrived.”

 

It was only then that he noticed that she wasn’t alone, two other people standing a small ways behind her. Alya and Marinette were there for some reason, which was odd because he was fairly certain that he hadn’t invited them and Nino had hardly touched his phone so he probably hadn’t either.

 

Not that he’d ever complain about getting to spend a little extra time with his friends.

 

It took Marinette getting visibly flustered for him to realise that he was staring. Not at the both of them either, just her. Just Marinette. He was fairly certain that he was the last one to notice what he’d been doing, which was, uh, a little awkward. He felt that pang again, like the one he’d felt when Nino had started talking about her earlier. He thought that it might be guilt, since he hadn’t told her his identity first, but frankly, that made no sense to him. Sure he spent some (most) of his free time with Marinette, but if he ever wanted anyone other than Nino to know his identity first, then it would have to be Ladybug, and he wasn’t feeling even half as guilty as he’s expected to about not telling her yet. She wasn’t ready but she’s given him the okay to share.

 

He didn’t want to outright ask why the heck they were there, since that was rude and he wasn’t complaining in the slightest, but he was wondering why they were there since all his friends knew not to come round unless they were specifically invited, though maybe not quite phrased in that way in their minds. Thankfully, he had Nathalie to clear everything up.

 

“Water fights are more fun with more people, and since your father isn’t home then he doesn’t need to know if you have guests. I’ll come and get you for dinner, please keep your phone on.”

 

Well, sort of clear things up.

                                                

He was just as confused after Nathalie walked off back indoors, though what she’d said had made sense at least. Waterfights would be more fun with more people, but that didn’t explain why she’d decided to invite his friends round for him. Or how they’d both managed to get there so quickly. Sure, since his sort of argument with his father she’d been acting differently around him, not too much, but enough that he’d noticed almost immediately. He could only guess that it was her form of personal rebellion against his father, since she seemed to be the only adult who really gave a damn about his wellbeing.

 

He gasped when something cold and wet hit him square in the jaw, his head snapping around to see the culprit. Instead what he got was another sopping wet sponge to the face. Water even flew into his gaping mouth. Gross. His first thought was Nino, but to his surprise it was Marinette who’d been pelting him with two, three, four sponges. Damn that girl had good aim. He’d been too surprised to even think about dodging, the sudden assault catching him entirely off guard, but the familiar competitive gleam in Marinettes eyes told him that he’d better act soon if he was going to stand even the slightest chance of gaining back his lost momentum.

 

Where all these weapons of mass soaking were coming from he had no idea, since both girls appeared to have arrived empty handed and there definitely hadn’t been any sponges involved previously. He wisely chose not to question it, instead launching himself back into attack mode with renewed vigour.

 

How, ten minutes later, he and Marinette had ended up teaming up on Nino and Alya he didn’t think to question. They’d just fallen together naturally, teaming up against their respective best friends and giving them both a thorough soaking. Adrien was almost as wet as the other two, while Marinette had stayed miraculously dry.

 

Well, he couldn’t be having his princess missing out on all the fun, could he?

 

While she was busy pinning Alya and Nino in a corner, Adrien grabbed one of the still mostly full buckets. With all the stealth gained from years of being one of the fleet footed heroes of Paris, he snuck up as close as he could behind her. She remained oblivious, too busy inflicting her reign of terror upon her cowering subjects. Alya, however, did not. She spotted him winding his way behind her and if her sudden grin was anything to go by, he only had a moment to pounce before Marinette noticed that something was off.

 

And oh boy, it was good.

 

As soon as the water hit her, she stopped everything. He’d expected her to screech, or jump a little more at least. As it was she’d barely twitched in surprise. His disappointment didn’t last more than a heartbeat, as her brain caught up with her body and she let out the most adorable yelpy-spluttering noise he’d ever heard. She turned to face him, the other two were all but forgotten. He doubled over, cackling at her outraged expression and how she was somehow still not as well soaked as the rest of them.

 

(If either of them had been paying attention they’d have noticed Alya pull her phone out of where she’d been keeping it safe and start taking photos, while Nino peered over her shoulder with a smile as wide as the ocean)

 

His breath caught in his throat at the sight of her. He’d seen her hair wet before, having occasionally caught her just after a shower as Chat, but never under the light of day. Or under the partially setting sun. The way the orangey yellow light reflected off her midnight blue locks was… incredible. Not even Nathanial would be able to capture the colours and do her any kind of justice in that moment. The look on her face was priceless, sitting somewhere between incredulous and anger (the playful kind, not the kind he never wanted to see directed at him on her features).

 

He must have been staring for a moment too long again, her face slipped into something else entirely, something contemplative and deeply thoughtful, before she smiled. It was a nice smile, the kind of smile that radiated innocence and happiness, not the kind of smile he’d expect from a girl who just threw herself at him and shoved damp, dirty sponge right in his mouth while pinning him to the ground with her freakish strength (there would come a day where Adrien would stop being surprised by how strong Marinette was, today was not that day). Nope, not that kind of smile at all.

 

Ohhh he was being pinned down by Marinette. Shwa was on top of him, right there. Sure, she was busy trying to gag him with a weapon of mass cleaning, but the fact of the matter was that he was pinned underneath a very pretty girl and he was strangely okay with it. How many times was he going to break that day? He needed a break from all this breaking.

 

“C’mon, lets go inside before Adrien chokes on something and we have to explain to papa Agreste how we murdered his son with a garden sponge.” Alya spoke up, the voice of reason. She’d been keeping an eye on the situation and the time while nobody else had. Adrien guessed she’d gone into mama bear mode. Though she did spend a lot of time looking after her younger siblings (and Marinette), and since they were all acting so much like kids themselves, maybe she’d decided to be the responsible one. And if she got to pelt the boys with watery projectiles in the process then maybe that was just a bonus.

 

There was a moment where Marinette looked like she was about to carry on attacking Adrien with the gross mud sponge, but thankfully she thought better of it and, much to Adriens relief, threw the sponge into a nearby bucket instead of at anyone else.

 

Out of everyone, Nino had suffered the worst. It made sense since he’d been sopping wet before the girls had even arrived thanks to Adrien. He was soaked from the tip of his red cap to his toes. Adrien was second worse, with two people’s worth of water, then Alya, who’d mostly avoided getting involved up until Marinette decided to channel Poseidon’s wrath and turn it against her. Thanks to Adrien’s stunt with the bucket, Marinette was at least half as soggy as the rest of them were. Mari was freakishly good at not getting hit and every time anyone managed to get close to landing a hit on her, Adrien would pop up and take the hit instead, which was cute in its own way. If they stayed out much longer they’d all end up with colds like something out of a lame anime.

 

It wasn’t until they were all huddled indoors, shivering and wrapped in towels that they realised that unlike their food fight, their water fight had the unfortunate side effect of them all needing a change of clothes. For Adrien, it was a case of going back to his room and getting a new set of clothes, for the others, it wasn’t quite so simple. They didn’t have spare clothes since they weren’t even supposed to be there to begin with, which meant that unless they wanted to parade around naked until he could get their clothes dried and returned to them, they’d all have to borrow something of his. For Nino that shouldn’t be too much of a problem, they had a similar build (read: tall beanpole) and on Alya his clothes could probably be called stylishly baggy, but Marinette? She was tiny.

 

He had just the thing.

 

He gave Nino and Alya matching sets of pyjamas, while Marinette got her surprise present early. After all the time she’d spent telling him how much she hated how little Chat themed merchandise, how was he supposed to resist? He’d stumbled upon them in one of his 3am internet trawls.

 

A black shirt emblazoned with reflective green cats eyes and bright green cloth pants with cute little paw prints. Sure, he’d been going to give them to her as Chat, but he also sort of really wanted to see her face when Adrien gave her some suspiciously well-fitting Chat Noir themed pj’s. As long as she didn’t ask how he knew her clothing size then all was good. Even Chat didn’t have a reasonable excuse.

 

He passed them to her with an (un)practiced nonchalance, turning away and joining in on Alya and Nino’s conversation, while keeping half an eye on her.

 

She was looking at them with a small puzzled frown. As if he’d just handed her a 16 sided Rubik’s cube not a change of clothes. She looked up at him with one eyebrow arched, like she knew exactly why he happened to have those. Which was beyond ridiculous, since he wasn’t entirely sure why he happened to own them either, but there was a reason why 3am isn’t the best time to go shopping online. He’d once ended up buying an entire box of over a thousand live ladybugs, may the local aphids forever look back at that time with nothing but horror for generations to come. He figured that Marinette would have been just a tad more confused if he’d handed her actual ladybugs instead of clothes. Though she did have a lot of plants dotted around and he’d heard that ladybugs were excellent for pest control, just like his Ladybug was excellent at akuma control. Not so helpful when you’re drenched and you just want a change of clothes though.

 

They all split up to get dressed, the girls in Adriens bathroom and the boys on the walk in wardrobe (hey, it was a really, really big wardrobe). As much as he loved his friends, there were still some boundaries on their friendship, the boys changing in front of the girls and vice versa was definitely one of them.

 

“Sooooo….” Nino drawled, while Adrien had his shirt halfway off. Adrien hummed in acknowledgement.

 

“Marinettes pretty, don’t ya think?” Another gut pang, this one definitely not guilt. He thought that Nino had gotten over his crush on Marinette years ago, hell, it had only lasted what? A few days at most to begin with. Not that he’d blame Nino for falling for Marinette all over again, she was… kind, compassionate, funny, sassy and altogether, Lovable. Hell, if he didn’t have Ladybug, he might even have fallen for her himself! He’d support Nino, even if he could have sworn he and Alya had a thing. Not quite what he’d have called a relationship, but he’d been picking up some not quite platonic vibes… Maybe he wouldn’t support Nino, not if it meant that Alya got left in the dirt. Though where would that leave Marinette?

 

“C’mon man, don’t look at me like that. You must be able to draw her freckles from memory by now from all that staring you’ve been doing!”

 

“Who, me? No way, I have _not_ been staring at Marinette!” Nino remained unconvinced, pausing what he was doing to cross his arms over his chest and fix Adrien, the poor oblivious soul, with a look.

 

“My guy, she literally sits behind us. You could not get more obvious if you tried.”           

 

“I don’t!”

 

“One hundred and eighty degrees. The only one who hasn’t noticed by now is Mari, and apparently you too.”

 

Adrien stilled, a bolt of clarity hitting him like lightning because yes, he could quite clearly remember seeing a lot more of her face in his memories than he should. He hoped that she really hadn’t noticed like Nino said, she’d only just started being more comfortable around him and he would hate to scare her off by being a creep.

 

He didn’t want to scare her off at all. But he didn’t want to analyse exactly why he felt so completely terrified at the thought of having even a little less Marinette in his life, fearing that the answer wasn’t just him not wanting to lose a friend.

 

“You gonna tell her? About the Chat thing, not the staring.”

 

“Yeah, yeah I think I will.” He’d never actually said it out loud before, not to anyone other than Plagg who’d just rolled his eyes and refused to comment other than to insult him and occasionally throw cheese at him (before hastily scooping it back up again). It felt freeing, but binding as well. Like he couldn’t back down now that he’d properly committed to it. It was a nice feeling though, as a lot of feelings involving Marinette were.

 

A whole range of emotions passed across Nino’s face, like he was internally debating something. Adrien just left him to it and carried on changing, not wanting to keep the girls waiting for too long. Adrien could usually get dressed in thirty seconds flat, but with all the talking he and Nino had been doing, it had to have been a few minutes at least.

 

As he was about to leave, Nino caught his arm. He met his eyes, hardly reacting to the way his friend’s eyes tried to bore holes in his skull with their sheer intensity.

 

“I really think you should tell Mari, and soon.”

 

 

 

 

* **a brief insight into Nino’s mind** *

K, so Adrien is deffo Chat, Mari is probs ladybug. Adrien likes Ladybug, and Mari too but he’s being a dweeb about it. Mari likes Adrien and who even knows how she feels about Chat, Ladybug is Ladybug and she doesn’t _act_ like she’s interested in Chat. But if Mari knew that Chat’s actually Adrien… Then all Adrien has to do is figure out how much he likes Mari and even if she isn’t Ladybug, it’ll all turn out okay….

 

Yeah, absolutely nothing can go wrong with this plan. As long as Mari knows that Chat and Adrien are the same person, there is no way they won’t end up together. Nino, you are a genius! High five yourself man, just do it. Then ask Alya out again, because she won’t date you until those two are dating and dammit that’s just unfair.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *spends ages googling catboy anime because there are literally so many with cat girls but hardly any with catboys????*
> 
> Nathalie is getting progressively more done with Gabes shit, she only stays for Adrien at this point, the poor boy can’t lose somebody else. 
> 
> Also: The new LGBT; LGBTC. lesbian, gay, bi, trans and Chat   
> (alternative) the A stands for Adrien


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did u kno: when I am confronted with anything, I do tiny screams. Somebody walks into me on the street? Tiny scream. Have to walk slightly faster than average? Tiny scream. A child appears? Tiny scream. Let the cat son scream too. He scream.

By the time their clothes came back, not only dried but cleaned too, the four had gathered around on the bed, each with an electronic device in hand. What else were four teens to do when left unsupervised in a giant bedroom, if not play some good old Cards Against Humanity? Adrien didn’t actually own a physical set, so they’d had to compromise. In style.

 

Marinette was perched with her tablet on and was winning by a landslide. She’d felt awkward sitting on Adrien Agreste’s own bed for all of five seconds before her competitive spirit took over, now she just sat there looking incredibly smug. How Adrien had managed to choose her card every time he was czar was a mystery to her, but there was no way in hell she’d call him out on it. Especially not if it meant she kept on winning. There was entirely too much ‘Adrien’ going on in her brain. _Nothing new there then._

 

“Mari, I love you and all but really. Give the rest of us a chance.” Alya mock scolded, knowing full well that Marinette couldn’t stop winning if she tried. She just had luck on her side, the rest of them were stuck hoarding their black cards like they were golden.

 

“Yeah, and if _somebody_ would stop being such an enabler…” Nino glared at Adrien, who shrunk a little and sent an apologetic smile back. The blonde honestly had no idea how it kept happening, he just chose the cards he thought were funniest. That Marinette had such a good taste in humour was in no way his fault.

 

It took Marinette winning four out of six games for them all to give up.

 

Dinner had been served just after they’d all dried off and changed clothes. She’d noticed how shocked Adrien had been when the food had been brought up to them instead of them being called down to gather around that huge, barren looking dining table she’d seen before. It looked more like something out of a mediaeval drama or something than the kind of table that actual, living people with lives and feelings and everything would ever use. He’d looked equally as surprised at the food itself, which had turned out to be takeout pizza. If she hadn’t already been blatantly staring at his every move and drinking in every emotion he exhibited then she might not have seen that he was getting a little misty eyed, just sitting there and looking at the pizza as if it was a heartfelt letter from a loved one. She’d already known that he was on a special diet as a model, but something in the way he actually teared up a little over something as simple as pizza rubbed her the wrong way.

 

She felt a little bad for not having saved him some of the stew she’d made for Chat. And for not personally making and delivering him lunch every day for the last four years. Or volunteered as his personal chef so she could make him breakfast, lunch and dinner. At least she’d managed to get the snacks part mostly covered, with a little help from her parents along the way.

 

She wondered if he’d notice if she started feeding him the way she did with Chat, maybe if she started it off slow and casual then he’d remain unaware. She didn’t want to risk him getting in trouble for not sticking with his diet, but any diet that made a seventeen-year-old boy cry over a slice of pizza was a stupid diet anyway and she would say that to Gabriel Agreste himself if it came down to it. Food was no game, especially not in her family. She’d grown up being taught the virtues of good food, of course she cared if her friends got fed! And her classmates… and pretty much anyone who was at the level of ‘acquaintance’ with her… 

 

Marinette recalled how Alya had practically pinned her in the bathroom and tried to convince her that there was something happening between her and Adrien, which was not true. Not at all. She’d stopped believing anything was actually going to happen between them long ago, even if her heart refused to acknowledge her brains decisions. And then there was Chat to consider….

 

No. No there wasn’t Chat to consider. Wherever the thought had come from, it could march straight back there again and die a lonely death along with the rest of those types of thoughts that had been creeping up on her recently. She may be closer to Chat than ever before, but that didn’t mean that they were anything other than friends! Why would she have to think about her totally platonic friendship feelings for Chat when she was busy thinking about her repressed crush type feelings for Adrien? No reason to at all!

 

She could feel Tikki judging her from all the way in her purse.

 

“Hey, did I tell you guys that my father said he’d try and have me moved into the adult line?” Another thing that rubbed her the wrong way, how formally Adrien spoke of his father. He’d always done it but she’d only recently picked out what it was that irritated her about it. The distance. The note of sadness that she was half convinced she’d imagined that said that the distance was in no way something he’d chosen. She was extremely close with her parents having only one… well, two real secrets from them. One being her double life as Ladybug and the other being Chat Noirs near daily visits.

 

“And how long ago did he say this again?” She was taken aback by the bitterness in Nino’s tone, but not half as much as she was to see the way Adrien suddenly and desperately flailed for an answer.

 

“Uh… Remember the day I went round Mari’s after school?”

“Bro.” Nino was really looking less and less amused. Marinette and Alya exchanged a startled look, both girls remembering that Nino was every bit as protective as Alya. Heck, Nino had been akumatised because of how he reacted to Adrien not being allowed a birthday party when he turned 15, it shouldn’t have been as much of a surprise to see him jump to Adrien’s defence.

 

That, and that whole… incident had been days ago. She would forever be in Adrien’s debt for not telling Alya, Nino, or anyone else about the akuma incident _, especially Alya_. Alya should, under no circumstances, ever find out what happened. Marinette would not survive that encounter. It would be the fastest way to get rid of Hawkmoth too, but she wasn’t prepared for Alya straight up killling a man in her defence.

 

“No, really Nino, he actually said that he’d pass it on to Nathalie!” When he was met with three near identical sceptical looks, he tried to convince them, unknowingly digging himself further into his shame hole “ _and_ he said he’d free up my schedule and not do that stupid die- oh shit” He stopped himself short as his self-preservation instincts finally kicked in. Just a moment too late, for the sharks had smelled the blood in the water and were closing in fast.

 

“What diet?” His friends chorused.

 

He gulped, having caught Marinettes expression. The very familiar sickly sweet murderous expression that he’d seen only days ago, when she’d killed the poisonous little butterfly and scared the hell out of him. Only, he was quick to discover that having that look directed at him was on a whole different level than being an outside observer. Alya, who looked almost as scary as Marinette, was obviously leaning away from Marinette.

 

Nino just looked quietly satisfied, having known that the day would one day come where the girls found out about Adrien’s insanely controlling father. He’d been waiting for this day. The day when the Adrien Defence Squad would rise.

 

“Uh…” He should tell them that it didn’t matter, which it really didn’t since he’d been assured that it wouldn’t even be put into action. “It doesn’t-“

 

**“ _Don’t_.”**

 

The high pitched squeaky noise of fear he’d emitted could hardly be called manly, but in the face of his friends collective fury, even the Gorilla would have wavered.

 

He ended up spilling (almost) the whole story, how the dinner with his father had gone downhill before it could even really start. Any hint of pride he’d had for standing up for himself at last he’d carefully hidden, downplaying the whole ‘argument’ as best he could, but if the critical way they all looked at him was anything to go by, he didn’t actually have to say anything for them to know it. Shame. He felt ashamed of himself. It was him who’d let himself get into that situation to begin with, not standing up to his father sooner. Of course his friends would be upset with him, he was too.

 

He’d been expecting them to launch into a lecture on how to not be a human doormat, or at least a light scolding for not telling them about the failed diet plan, what he hadn’t expected was to be swept up in a group hug. Huh. He was hugging them back before he registered what was actually happening, which somehow led to him mostly just wrapped around Marinette and the other two boxing them in. It didn’t last nearly as long as any of them would have liked, but they all had to change back into their actual clothes at some point in the day.

 

They changed faster this time around, all four of them reappearing in his room within two minutes. They stood in relative silence, none of them quite sure where to go from there. Adrien felt a little drained, unused to sharing his emotions so openly like he just had with as many people. It was one thing to make the odd offhand comment to Nino or to complain to Marinette from the safety of another name, but it was another thing completely to be so honest about how he was feeling. He couldn’t regret it though, even if he did feel bad about it, as if he’d made his father out to be some evil villain straight out of a kids fairytale, or a magical girl anime. Either parallel worked just fine. It really wasn’t as bad as he felt like he’d made it seem. He knew that it wasn’t fair to make him out to be the bad guy, his father really did care deep down, even if his way of showing it was stifling to say the least. Sometimes it just got too much, even more frequently than before in recent months, but he was still getting by. He’d probably have a hard time convincing his friends that if he tried.

 

The silence was broken by a firm knock on their door, Nathalie coming to tell the others that it was getting late and that they should probably start to think about leaving. No sooner had Nathalie finished talking, she was gone again, trusting them to figure out their own ways home. If Adrien wanted to offer them the car, he could get in contact with his driver just as easily as she could, so he understood why she hadn’t stuck around to bring it up. Besides, she was a busy woman even when his father wasn’t around, having to manage a portion of his work in his absence as well as her duties in taking care of Adrien. He thought that it was a miracle she hadn’t quit from the stress years ago, no matter how high her salary, she was singlehandedly doing the work of five people. A quick glance at his phone revealed that wow yeah, it had gotten pretty late. It was almost the time he usually went to go see Marinette actually, which given that she was right there-

 

“Hey, where did Mari go?”

 

 

“Excuse me, are you Nathalie?”

 

Marinette knew that she’d been impulsive, following the woman out the room and silently trailing after her until she was sure they were safe from being interrupted for at least a few minutes just to talk alone with her, but she hadn’t known what else she could do. Nathalie had been the one to call her and invite both her and Alya round, which she now knew was only possible because of Gabriel’s absence. If what Adrien had said was true, then she was the one easy way to find out if Adrien’s father intended on making good on his promises. She seemed nice enough, reserved sure, but she had to care about Adrien at least a little if she’d go against her bosses orders just so the guy could spend some time having water fights and eating pizza with his friends.

 

“Miss Dupain-Cheng.” She acknowledged, “did you want to talk to me about something?” Marinette thought that Nathalie looked exhausted, in the way that adults often did when they were being overworked. A bone deep weariness that was poorly concealed under a layer of cosmetics and was carried across her whole body. It was good of her to take the time out to talk to her though, given how busy she must actually be.

 

“Yes, actually. It’s about Adrien.” Nathalie inclined her head a little so she forged ahead “He told me that he argued with his father, what happened after that?”

 

Nathalie frowned, just in the slightest. She understood Marinettes concern for Adrien, and if anybody asked her, not that they ever would, she thought it was concern well placed. “No, only that Mr Agreste shut himself in the office afterwards and Adrien went to his room, why?”

 

“His father didn’t ask you to do anything, I mean, anything about Adrien?” It was Marinettes turn to frown. Adrien had said that his father had promised him change, which would mean having his assistant involved in some way at least, especially since she was the one who interacted with Adrien the most and was practically more of a parent figure than Adrien’s own father.

 

“No, nothing directly related to him, why?”

 

“Adrien was under the impression that his father promised to stop being such a control fre- uh” Nathalie, who before had managed to uphold her perfectly poised, severe countenance, had cracked a small smile as the girl in front of her tried in vain to find a way around having just called Gabriel Agreste, one of the most influential men in Paris, a control freak. “I meant to say that Adrien… h-he thought that his father had said he’d talk to you about altering his schedule, diet plan and being switched to modelling the adult clothes.”

 

“I think I would have remembered if Mr Agreste had asked me to do any of those things.”

 

Marinette didn’t know how to react to that. If Adrien’s father had lied to him just to get him to stop… well, Gabriel Agreste would suffer the wrath of one very pissed off 17-year-old girl who just happened to be a superhero. A superhero who could tear absolutely anyone down with one well-placed comment if she wished.

 

“ _However,_ I will talk to Monsieur Agreste before jumping to any conclusions.” Marinette nodded, grateful for Nathalie’s co-operation. Nathalie even offering to talk was probably a huge risk in itself, but if it meant Adrien being even the tiniest bit happier? Marinette had always known that she would throw herself under a bus for Adrien Agreste, she was only mildly startled to discover that she’d happily take other people down for his sake too.

 

“Thank you. Please let me know what he says.”

 

“And why should I tell you anything about Adrien’s private business if he doesn’t choose to tell you himself?”

 

Because it was Adrien. The very same Adrien who hadn’t even meant to let slip about his argument with his father, who never really talked about his home life, not even with Nino, the boy who had the same air of sadness around him as another boy she cared for with all her heart and would do anything to protect. For all her talking about how protective Alya and Nino both were, she had the sneaking suspicion that she was just as bad herself, if not worse. Almost certainly worse, seeing as she was the one who’d gone after the secretary to try and make sure something got done.

 

“With all due respect madam, I just saw Adrien try and act like he didn’t cry over pizza. If you think I’m just going to say my piece and consider this done, then you’re dead wrong.” Her voice came out steady and unwavering, her confidence making her sound more like Ladybug than Marinette.

 

Nathalie, for her part, was hardly even phased. Years of dealing with Gabriel Agreste and working in the fashion industry had given her skin so thick that she sometimes wondered if she would ever react to anything again without a blank, unblinking expression. That didn’t mean that she was blind, she could see that Marinette was being serious and that she was coming from a place of concern, not trying to start trouble or gossip like others would. That was why she promised that she’d be in touch, before turning and walking away. She was glad that Adrien had such loyal friends, even if a small part of her wondered why the fire in Marinettes eyes had been so familiar to her. Like she’d seen it before somewhere.

 

Marinette had been hoping to slip away and come back again without being noticed, but as she rounded the corner, she walked straight into Nino, bouncing off his chest and stumbling back a step, just barely recovering in time and staying upright. From the way he was standing, casually propped against the wall, it was safe to say that he’d overheard at least a little of the talk with Nathalie.

 

“There you are! You just up and disappeared on us, then I find you out here, squaring it off with the Secretary!” He shot her a lazy smile as they walked together “But seriously, you’re lucky it was me who saw that not Alya or worse, Adrien.”

 

Marinette was actually grateful for that much, she couldn’t imagine how cut up Adrien would be if he’d heard what Nathalie had said about his father not keeping his word and Alya not only would have told him, but she wouldn’t have let Marinette live it down that she’d actually gone after Nathalie for Adrien’s sake. Especially when she could actually legitimately say that she’d only done it out of concern for her friend, not because of a borderline stalker crush like she’d likely have done not as long ago as she’d have liked.

 

By the time she and Nino re-joined Adrien and Alya, it was time to go home. In her absence, the others had all decided to take the car, since not everyone could live a few minutes’ walk away from everywhere like she did. It would give them all a few extra precious minutes together, so she wasn’t going to be the one to complain, even if she was going to be the first one to be dropped off.

 

She completely missed the way Adrien’s eyes followed her the whole way, from the moment she came back with Nino until the car turned a corner after dropping her off home a scant few minutes later.

 

 

Marinette was acting strangely. It was one of the first things he’d noticed, she hadn’t even scolded him for knocking over a plant pot. She hadn’t even pointed out how late he’d been either, though how was she to know that he’d been late because he’d been with her? It was already dark out and he probably wouldn’t be able to stay as long as he’d have liked. She’d always kick him out at a reasonable time on a school night.

 

That’s how he’d thought it would have been before he realised something was up, now he was dead set on finding out what it was and making her feel better. He’d never heard of an akuma victim being targeted twice, but Marinette had been far from a victim in her encounter with the butterfly. He didn’t think she was in danger of being re-targeted, but better safe than sorry, right? He wasn’t using it as an excuse to spend yet more time with her.

 

He was probably just making up excuses to stay longer.

 

“Heya Princess, penny for your thoughts?” She’d been antsy ever since he’d arrived, possibly before too.

 

“Oh… um. You know, just stuff.” That was either an untapped goldmine of talk or her trying to deflect his very serious and legitimate concern for her wellbeing. He’d hazard a guess that it was the latter, but was going to disregard his best guess and act as if it was the former anyway.

 

“Boy trouble?” He crooned, waggling his eyebrows for added effect. Oh how his traitorous heart skipped a beat at the thought of Marinette having any sort of boy issues. If there was a guy who needed a beat down, he would be more than happy to oblige. What could have happened with a guy in the hour between Adrien saying goodbye and Chat saying hello he had no idea.

 

She actually laughed at that, a sound that would have made him laugh right along with her on most other days.

 

“Oh, no no, nothing like that! Well, he is a guy but we’re not… He’s just a friend.”

 

He really hoped he’d imagined that note of disappointment at the end there.

 

“Care to enlighten me?” He shifted, realising in that moment how much he took what they had for granted. He’d been sat with his head on her shoulder, idly munching on some day old bread while she’d been working on a few alterations to her ‘him’ hoodie. How many other people could he honestly say he had that with? None, not even his Lady. Physical contact may not be a strange thing between the two of them, but there was a different context for when he had her at his side. There was a difference, he thought, between the fighting together and having to touch so you didn’t get splattered by the villain of the week type of friendship and wanting to touch just because you can type of friendship. He and Ladybug had both, but fighting together would always be her top priority.

 

Marinette hummed absently, then looked up at him.

 

“You promise not to tell?”

 

“Of course, my lips are sealed.” He meant it too. Who exactly would he tell anyway, Ladybug? Nino?

 

She took a deep breath and he, rather reluctantly, sat up and gave her his full attention. Not that she hadn’t had it before, just that he wanted to look like the avid listener he was. Social cues, he could follow ‘em.

 

“Well, I have this friend. He’s… great. Really, really great” A pang of jealousy, he pushed it away and tucked it in a dusty corner with the rest of his unneeded emotions. “He’s not really having a great time at home but I think… I think it’s always been that way? Or for as long as I’ve known him anyway. He doesn’t really talk about it much though.”

 

Sounded familiar. He wondered which other poor soul she was talking about, she sounded like she really gave a damn about him. He told her as much, the caring not the familiarity of the situation.

 

“Yeah. I really do.” She tucked a stray hair behind her ear. “He reminds me of you sometimes.” Was she blushing? She was! Oh wait that was just adorable. He wished he had his camera or his phone so he could take a picture.

 

Chat, ever the comedian, gasped loudly. One hand laid delicately over his heart and the other covering his mouth. 

 

“Are you saying you _care_ about me princess?”

 

For the hundredth time, he found himself being pushed off the chaise and on her floor. He had expected no less from her, it was the exact reaction he’d been looking for.  It meant she was being more herself, not the strange brooding creature he’d been confronted with on his arrival.

 

“Of course I do!” She nudged him with her socked foot (pink slipper socks, very fluffy. He had to resist the urge to pet or swat at them) before bursting into giggles. He wanted to hear more about the sad guy though.

 

“So what’s got you so down about that guy?” He gently probed, because he was curious as all hell and if it was bothering Marinette then it was bothering him too.

 

She sighed and let her head fall onto his shoulder, causing him to hold in a very low, very tiny scream.

 

“Earlier I did something without asking,” he hummed curiously, while staying very, very still as if she’d move if he so much as twitched “I stuck my nose in without thinking _again_ and what if I made things worse? All these years and I haven’t learnt a thing!”

 

“Oh?”

 

“I was at his house with some friends and he said something about what was going on by accident so-“ He tuned her out after that because Mr mystery man was not a Mr mystery man at all. He was the mystery! She was worried about him! Adrien! She’d only been at school, her home and his house that day. She was rambling on about how she’d done something to something and ruined her chances at ever getting something and he was just sitting there appreciating her existence. How on earth did he ever find someone so pure?

 

“Wow, I can really tell your parent are bakers. You’re a cinnamon roll.”

 

Again with being pushed off the chaise, he spent more time on her floor than he did on the chair. She huffed, then groaned and buried her head in the cushion. “I hate you.”

 

“You just said you cared!”

 

“I care enough to hate you.”

 

He grinned, a fuzzy warmth filling his chest. She cared. Marinette cared about Chat and Adrien. He couldn’t have been happier, not even if it had been Ladybug herself who’d said it.

 

“Princess, anybody who could hate you would be missing out on the sweetest, kindest girl in all of France. Whoever this guy is,” _it’s me,_ he silently pleaded with her, as if she’d be able to see straight through whatever magic made it impossible to recognise him, _it’s been me, Adrien, all along._ “whoever he is, if he can’t see you for the wonderful creature that you are then he doesn’t deserve you in the first place.” He didn’t deserve her anyway, how long had he kept his distance from her? Too long. He should have leapt at the first chance to solidify their friendship instead of letting her remain nervous and distant. She’d been the one to repeatedly try and connect with him while he’d remained passive, hardly ever approaching her unless he had a solid reason to. He’d managed to convince himself it was so he didn’t freak her out, but deep down he thought that he was just scared. Of what he wasn’t quite sure.                                                                                        

 

She was studying him, scanning his face for any hint of a lie. Whatever she found must have been enough as she stretched out backwards, patting the spot next to her and inviting him to lay beside her.

 

“Thanks Chat, really. It means a lot coming from you.” His eyes met hers and they both smiled. Spread out beside her, barely an inch between them, he felt comfortable. Like he belonged. That was Marinette all over, welcoming and warm and wonderful and a whole lot more.

 

Thirty minutes later and they were both still lying next to each other, with one major difference. They’d both drifted off to sleep. Marinette had shuffled closer and Chat had wrapped an arm protectively over her middle, her head tucked neatly under his chin. It wasn’t that late, but the days exertions had taken their toll on the heroes and the siren call of sleeps abyss had lured them under.

 

 

Downstairs, Tom and Sabine sat pouring over a photo album, each cradling a cup of steaming hot tea. The album was a work in progress, but a quick trip upstairs had given them more than enough ammunition to fill out another few pages.

 

“At least now we know why Marinette was sneaking off with all those leftovers.” Tom joked, as he did every night since they’d discovered the existence of their evening visitor.

 

“Yes, it was such a mystery before wasn’t it darling? Whatever could our daughter be doing upstairs, screaming a boys name in the middle of the night other than feeding him?” She chuckled at the way he turned pink and coughed into his hand. Thomas Dupain wasn’t an easy man to fluster, but Marinette was his weak spot and she was an expert at making full use of it.

 

“A boy? Sabine honey, I thought that we adopted a stray cat!”

 

She pointed at her favourite of the new photos, featuring two teenagers wrapped around each other like vines. It was cute, Sabine could see the way they fit together like two halves of a puzzle, though she was still rooting for Adrien. She couldn’t just let her daughter give up on the boy of her dreams for a superhero so easily. She had her suspicions about Chat of course, and both parents knew more of their only daughters’ activities than they were willing to let on.

 

“We’re sending this one to Alya, right?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> An alternative title for this fic: everybody knows (or do they…?)
> 
> I wasn’t going to let Mari's parents know and it was just going to be Nino vs all these blind people but I think after three years Marinettes parents would have clued on at least a little. They just don’t know for sure and if Mari decides not to tell them, they’re fine with that. As fine with it as the parents of a superhero who regularly throws herself into danger can be anyway. (plus, it fits better with my future plans. Yeah, I have plans for this fluffy mess. More fluff. I hope you guys have good dentists because there’s gonna be some sweet syrupy fluff happening. Nice.)
> 
> And i swear, this will be the last time i mention the stabby butterfly thing. I promise. Authors word. Except for if another butterfly thing happens. Which it might.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This'll be the probably last time i update until i get back from France on the 23rd, won't have wifi after the 12th but i'll still have my laptop so i can get some quality writing done

The morning brought many quiet, tiny screams, all of them Adrien’s. Plagg, as usual, was neatly curled up on the pillow beside him, which wouldn’t be too bad if it wasn’t for the other person on the pillow. Or that the pillow itself was a pleasant shade of pink that he was fairly sure he didn’t own. He’d fallen asleep on Marinettes chaise lounge with her curled up beside him. He’d also woken up there (thankfully before she did) and found himself in quite the conundrum. Marinette was definitely a cuddler, which was nothing too shocking, but new evidence revealed that she was a sprawler too, taking up most of the chaise, including the parts he was laying on himself. In short; Marinette Dupain-Cheng was half on top of him and was fast asleep. She reminded him of a very eager octopus, in the nicest way possible. He had a brief, awful moment where he thought of the wedding themed akuma that did a number on his ribs with her weird shadow tentacles. Maybe the octopus analogy wasn’t the best of choices. Marinette was a much better hugger than the shadow tentacles were. Even waking up beside Marinette detransformed wasn’t the cause of the tiny scream.

 

No, it was something much, much worse. Probably.

 

There on the desk, just within his line of sight, was a tray. A tray that hadn’t been there the night before. And at some point they’d both had a quilted blanket draped over them. Someone else had been in there, had probably seen him out of the costume. Which wasn’t so bad, since they probably didn’t see him as Chat either. On the other hand, it could potentially be worse, since his father would blow a fuse if he found out he’d spent the night no matter how innocent it’d been. It almost made him wish it hadn’t been as innocent, just to spite his father. He brushed the thought away before it could take root.

 

‘Someone’ was more than likely at least one of Marinettes parents, especially if the fresh croissants he could just about see on the tray were anything to go by. The croissants were still lightly steaming, a thermos of tea set beside them and two empty teacups. How could such an innocuous set-up be so terrifying?

 

“Chat…?” Marinette shifted, one bleary bluebell eye opening a crack and struggling to focus. “Go back to sleep… it’s too early” She slurred, not even awake enough to realise that Chat wasn’t Chat right then. Just to be safe, and a little because he panicked, he clapped his hands over her eyes.

 

She was already dead to the world again, no wonder she was late so often. Even him practically slapping her eyeballs hadn’t woken her up. He winced on her behalf, before starting the delicate process of extracting himself from her vice-like grip.

 

“Boy, you’re an idiot.” Plagg drawled, having been watching him since he woke up. “You fell asleep where I can’t get any cheese.”

 

Of course Plagg had been awake the whole time. Of course all he cared about was his stomach. That’s just what he did. That was Plagg all over. He could have just woken him up.

 

“Did anyone…?”

 

“Figure you out? Jeez, what do ya take me for? I hid! They just saw Adrien.” Plagg was practically hissing, as if the vague insinuation that he might have been spotted (again) was the gravest insult he’d ever received in his thousands of years of living. He frantically shushed the mouthy kwami in case Marinette wasn’t as asleep as she seemed. A pretty slim chance considering she was snoring lightly and burrowing into the warm spot he left behind, but not one he was willing to take. “Besides, that’s not what I meant.”

 

“Wha…?” He scanned the room, thinking that he might have missed something. His eyes landed on a folded sheet of cream coloured paper resting daintily next to the tray. He managed to pry himself free of Marinette without any major mishaps, scooping the note up with a nervous sense of anticipation. If he was honest, he didn’t exactly know what was going on other than he was probably freaking out.

 

                 _Sweetheart, when we said you were welcome any time we meant it. Eat up, Marinette probably won’t wake up until it’s time for you to leave (or later) x_

                                                                                                 _Love, T &S_

That looked like a note aimed at Adrien, since neither parent had said such a thing to Chat. Okay. So he just had to go and ask them not to mention that he’d been there, right? Would that be weird? Probably, but he didn’t want Marinette finding out who he was just because he was dumb enough to fall asleep on her and get spotted.

 

“That’s sweet and all kiddo, but that  _still_  wasn’t what I meant.” Something papped him on the nose, the something being a grinning black kwami. Again. “ _You’re doing the feelings~”_ the little devil trilled, cackling like it was the greatest joke he’d ever heard.

 

“What.” He deadpanned. Of course he was! He was freaking out and all that stupid cat was doing was laughing and what if he woke Marinette up-

 

“You liiiike her!” He snickered, catching Adrien off guard.

 

“What?” He repeated, with a considerably different inflection. “Plagg, just because we slept  _next_  to each other doesn’t mean that-“ he was rudely interrupted by an obnoxious shushing and yet more papping.

 

Plagg had the gall to settle himself in a stray ball of wool that was oh-so conveniently placed right next to the tray on the desk, still with the smug cat grin. He didn’t know exactly what time it was, hopefully still early enough that he’d be able to sneak back to his place unnoticed. It was still dark out at least, not that meant much since there was rain predicted for later that day and the skies would likely stay dark until the clouds passed.

 

“Boy, listen to me. You can like her  _and_  Ladybug. There’s nothin’ wrong with liking two girls at once. It’s what you do about it that makes a difference.”

 

“Well yeah I know that but-“ He interrupted him again, intent on monologuing.  

 

“And even though you’re neck deep in denial, you like this girl. You’re probably the last one to see it too, you’re such an oblivious sap. So you do this, be fair to yourself. I know you’re still all hung up on Ladybug, but kid, maybe it’s time to move on already.”

 

“Plagg no, you know I wouldn’t-“ Adrien just couldn’t get a word in edgeways.

 

“You love her.” He didn’t have so much as a hint of his usual mischievousness, Plagg was being completely serious.

 

Plagg, despite widespread belief and general appearances, deeply cared about Adrien, just as he cared about all his chosen. That he had to keep holding back on showing how much he actually did care, he resolved to just repeat to himself how _yes, it was true, he had feelings! What a shocker!_

 

Adrien had a bad habit of repressing his emotions to the point that he’d brush them off entirely. Plagg knew exactly why it was he did it, his father pressuring him into being the ‘perfect son’ and seeing any sign of emotion as a weakness was  _not_  good. The kid had to have it pointed out to him that he was  _friggin in love_. With Ladybug, he’d fallen hard and fast. With Marinette (aka: Ladybug but he didn’t know that yet), it was a slower process. Adrien loved Ladybug the Ideal and Marinette the Person. He just couldn’t see that they were one and the same yet, not surprising when he couldn’t even tell what he was feeling for himself most of the time.

 

He knew when he had to be serious about something. Whenever he got serious, Adrien would listen. He’d be stupid not to, when the prankster god of bad luck and destruction stopped joking, it really did mean something. Yes, he was a god, a deity, one of the immortal beings. Nobody would ever convince him otherwise. Not even Tikki. Adrien should definitely listen to relationship advice from the tiny god curled up on a ball of wool. If only because Plagg might actually puke if he had to watch Adrien brood over ‘both’ girls for even ten minutes more.

 

Adrien was still standing there, looking halfway between confusion and denial. On one hand, he could feel the (almost) truth in Plaggs words, but on the other, he had no idea what to do with the information. His mouth opened and closed a few times before he finally managed to get a grasp on what he was trying to say.

 

“…I think we need to go.”

 

“Kid.” Plagg crammed as much disappointment into that single word as he possibly could, Adrien just knew it. He hated disappointing anyone, especially Plagg.

 

“Plagg.” He replied, trying to keep calm. He was failing, which was new. He was usually pretty good at reigning in his emotions.

 

Plagg (reluctantly) extracted himself from the soft wool, drifting up until he was level with Adrien’s eyes. He looked more annoyed than caring but an effort was clearly being made, though unbeknownst to Adrien, Plagg happened to know that Tikki was watching from the shadows. They’d spent most of the night chatting up a storm. She’d probably end his life if he messed up the pep talk too badly. They both had a plan and they’d have to stick to it. There was only so long they could both spend watching their chosens circle each other like nervous alley cats until they got involved.

 

“Can’t leave yet anyway. The parents, remember? You have to buy their silence at least.” Oh right. He’d nearly forgotten thanks to Plagg. The kwami couldn’t have chosen a more convenient time to turn his world upside-down, that would be stupid and way too sensible for him. At least he had the decency to remind him of what he’d been going to do  _before_  he ran for the hills. “And it’s Saturday.”

 

Adrien rolled his eyes, taking a moment to lay on a mask of all the calm and poise that he was very much not feeling right then. Years of modelling was good for nothing if not teaching him how to live life wearing a mask of the metaphorical kind.

 

He cautiously left the room, Plagg stowed safely in his pocket in case he needed to make a hasty retreat. One last look at the sleeping Marinette (just to make sure she was asleep and hadn’t heard any of that conversation) and he took the plunge, off in search of Tom and Sabine.

 

It couldn’t have been later than 7am, maybe even as early as 6. Being bakers, Marinettes parents had probably been up for a while themselves anyway. He wasn’t looking for long, finding both of them sat in the living room, looking for all the world like they’d been expecting him. They were both facing the door with their hands crossed in their laps. Twin smug expressions were plastered across their faces. Why was everyone in his life so damn terrifying? Maybe he was just too easily frightened. Nah, they were scarier than even the worst akuma victims.

 

“There you are dear, we were wondering how long it’d take you to join us.” Sabine motioned for him to sit on a chair right opposite them. It hadn’t been there the last time he’d visited, had it? It actually looked like one of the stools from the kitchen. He took the seat anyway, avoiding direct eye contact and staying quiet.

 

“When do you need to be home son?” Adrien shifted uncomfortably, well aware of the elephant in the room. They didn't seem mad at him, but maybe they were just pretending not to be angry, just waiting to see what he was going to say. 

 

“I have a shoot at ten. Nathalie usually comes and gets me around eight though.”

 

By the way they were frowning, he’d have thought he’d just declared that he’d bought out the bakery and was going to turn it into a fast food joint. Had he said anything wrong? He didn’t think so, he’d just told the truth.

 

“Nathalie… the secretary?”

 

“Technically she’s my father’s personal assistant-“

 

Once again, he didn’t get to finish what he was saying. He wondered if he was giving out an aura of ‘interrupt me, don’t let me finish anything I’m saying!’ today. He was starting to get a little fed up with it.

 

“Yes. Sorry. The personal assistant. My mistake.” Sabine sighed, sharing a look with Tom. Not just a casual look either, it was A Look. The kind of look where there was a whole conversation involved. The kind of look that only close couples and teen superhero duo’s could accomplish. “Did you eat before you came down?” He shook his head, having been too busy being handed life lessons by an ancient creature and having tiny screams happen to eat. He’d have probably choked and then poor Mari would have to figure out and explain why Adrien Agreste was dead on her floor.

 

He caught Toms eye by accident, catching a small glint of what might have been amusement but could also have been the seething rage of a protective parent upon discovering their only daughter curled up with a boy in the early hours of the morning.

 

“Son, what are your intentions towards our daughter?” Another tiny scream, this time he had an audience to appreciate his screaming talents. They just shared another Look. “I’ll have you know I’ll accept no less than three chickens and a goat for her.”

 

“A-are you joking?” he cringed internally at how squeaky and unsure his voice came out. And he  _stuttered_. Adrien Agrest does not _stutter_! Except for when Ladybug was involved and maybe a few times around Marinette, but never around adults! And the two parents in front of him were very much adults. They payed taxes and everything! Or at least he would hope they did or they would be in a whole heap of trouble and- not the point. The point was,  _he stuttered_!

 

“Leave the poor boy alone!” Sabine slapped Tom on the arm, scolding him like a misbehaving child before turning her attention back to him. He gulped involuntarily. “And yes, of course we’re joking. Animals aren’t allowed in the bakery anyway.”

 

He nodded, his mouth suddenly very, very dry. He was busy wondering exactly how much weirder his day was going to get and he wasn’t quite sure he even wanted to know. He realised that every time ‘Adrien’ had been to the bakery, something strange had happened. It couldn’t be more than just a coincidence, but he wondered how many occurrences he'd missed out on. Maybe it only happened when he was around? Again, that wasn't the point.

 

“So, uh… t-this might sound a little strange but… Could you maybe not mention me being here to Marinette?”

 

Oh hell that sounded even weirder somehow when he said it out loud. Why was he like this? Why couldn’t he have just said something more normal sounding like ‘my father must never know I was here would you mind not ever speaking of my presence here to anyone not even Marinette, thanks’ which was in no way normal sounding but it was also true in a way. Wait, he could still say that.

 

“You see, my father-“

 

“Of course son.” Tom interrupted. Adrien put aside his annoyance at being interrupted for the umpteenth time to stare at the angelic beings in front of him. “As long as you realise that neither Sabine or I will let you leave without eating at least, you’re too thin for a growing boy.” Sabine nodded, pulling a bag from seemingly nowhere and handing it to him. He probably should have expected some sort of trick what with them both being so accepting, but for all he knew they were being perfectly reasonable or just taking pity on him.

 

The bag was plain and brown, completely innocuous and devoid of the bakery logo (Marinette had informed him that she’d actually designed the logo herself the same year he’d started public school). It was also hot, to the point that it was almost difficult to hold the bottom. He’d have been tempted to roll the top over and hold it like that, but him and paper bags had a long history of not getting along and he wasn’t going to risk anything if he didn’t have to.

 

He took a moment to reflect how lucky Marinette was to have parents like these. Even when his mother had been around, he’d never known anything like this. His mother may have been every bit as kind and loving as his father was cold and distant now, but she’d still not been on the same level as Tom or Sabine, they were something else. He was lucky by association, he guessed, since he had them in his life now. He cursed himself again for not properly befriending Marinette sooner, he’d really missed out on so much.

 

“I should probably get going…” he still had time before he absolutely had to leave, but he didn’t want to run the risk of Marinette waking up early (ha.) or more likely, the risk of getting caught. The sooner he left, the safer he’d be. He was beginning to get restless, the thought of getting caught sticking like a thorn in his side.

 

Saying goodbye and leaving through the back door was possibly one of the most awkward things he’d ever experienced, and he was a pretty awkward guy at the best of times. He seemed to be the only one feeling any measure of awkward though, the two doting parents that weren’t his finding the whole affair entirely too funny.

 

Hurrying through the streets with the bag clutched tightly to his chest, he weaved his way through backstreets. He figured that he’d be less likely to be spotted that way and that he’d left early enough to buy the time to take the longer, safer route. Not that backstreets were particularly safe, but he’d take a knife wielding thug over the wrath of his father any day. Not that he’d encountered any knife wielding thugs on the way home, he’d actually yet to see anyone at all since leaving the bakery. He put it down to the light drizzle and gloomy weather, the whole reason he hadn’t transformed and run home as Chat, the rain wasn’t the most comfortable thing in the suit. It wasn’t worth the discomfort when he could just walk.

 

Actually, he didn’t see anyone at all, not even when he stood just outside the confines of the Agreste manor, away from the blank eyes of the cameras. He’d been keeping track of the security and its blind spots since long before he became Chat Noir. He stared intently at his window, mentally tracking the path he’d have to take to get in. Going in through any other way was too risky.

 

“Hey Plagg?”

 

“Just say it kid.”

 

“Claws out!”

 

Getting in was no problem, he’d done it a thousand times before, maybe more. The only slight issue was that he’d forgotten to open his window before leaving the night before (he’d left through one of the staff entrances). That was hardly even an issue, he’d become uncannily good at unlocking things without leaving a trace. Probably not one of the most respectable talents ever, but he was good at it and the amount of times it came in handy was higher than anyone would expect. A guy could only lock himself out of his own bedroom or get locked in a closet or something before he took some sort of action.

 

Once he was safely tucked away in his room, he released his transformation and collapsed into a chair. His troublesome kwami looked at him for one long moment and he half expected him to burst into another rant about his love life or lack thereof, but instead he just turned and went to his cheese without a single word. Whatever, it was better that he be left alone anyway. What Plagg had said earlier, now that he had time to think on it, just would not leave his head. The more he thought about it  _“you love her”_  the more he realised it wasn’t quite true. Plagg had read him all wrong.

 

Sure, he liked Marinette, maybe more than any friend ever should like another friend, but it wasn’t love. Maybe one day it could be though, if he let it happen.

 

_“You liiiike her!”_

 

Yeah, he did. He liked Marinette.

 

He was okay with that.

 

 

 

 

Marinette woke up a short while before noon, feeling refreshed and happy and not at all like she usually did immediately after waking up. The first thing she noticed was the sense that something, or someone, was missing.

 

Chat. She’d fallen asleep next to Chat. The thought made a searing blush break out across her face and spread as far as her neck. Poor Chat had probably been even more embarrassed than her! He must have left while she was still sleeping, maybe even tried to say goodbye. Not that she’d remember if he had. Well, it was no big deal. It was only Chat, nothing to be embarrassed about! Now, if it had been  _Adrien_  that would have been another story entirely, after all, falling asleep curled around the boy she liked would have been a dream come true-

 

Oh who was she kidding.

 

Sometime before they’d both fallen asleep, maybe even way before then, she’d come to a realisation.

 

She liked Chat Noir. She liked him in the exact same way she liked Adrien, but so much differently. She  _knew_  Chat. And while her relationship with Adrien was coming on in leaps and bounds, he still felt so far away. It wasn’t anything he did, not really, it was more in the way he acted. He’d always take a backseat in conversations, hold back when she could tell he wanted to say something different. Chat… was a lot less restrained. Where Adrien was every part polite and well-mannered, Chat was much ruder in a way, more brash, wearing his opinions more openly and unafraid of the consequences. It wasn’t a bad thing, usually. The two boys were so much alike, more than just in looks, but at the same time they were worlds apart. They were her boys, the both of them. She’d be hard pressed to choose between them, and therein lied her problem.

 

If she couldn’t choose, what was she supposed to do?

 

It wouldn’t be fair to string one of them along, not while she still had feelings for the other. That was how things got messy, relationship 101, a lesson taught courtesy of Alya. Alya had given Marinette so many renditions of ‘the talk’ that she was fairly certain that she was more than a little well versed in the mechanics behind a healthy relationship than someone who’d never been on a proper date ought to be. She didn’t count the sort-of date with Nathanial, as lovely as he was, there was the slight issue of him having come down with a slight case of ‘akuma’ at the time.

 

So she could safely say, she was well and truly-

 

“Marinette?” Tikki floated up, having been munching on a plate of cookies on her desk and waiting for Marinette to pull herself together. She must have seen that wasn’t about to happen any time before sunset and decided to give up on waiting. “We should really talk about something.”

 

She looked down at the little kwami fondly. Tikki was so great. She’d be forever grateful to Tikki for putting up with her and her overly emotional ways.

 

“You like Chat Noir.” It wasn’t a question, not in the slightest. Hearing it out loud was a little different than just thinking it, but she could handle it. She could totally handle it, no problem. They were just words. True words.

 

“Yes, I do.” She agreed, perfectly calm and composed. A rarity itself.

 

“And please don’t de- wait, you do?” Tikki sounded as surprised as she looked, as if she didn’t think that Marinette was capable of knowing her own emotions. Pfft, she didn’t need to be told. She was the girl who’d identified her crush on Adrien within seconds. She knew herself better than anyone, right? Of course she did! She totally hadn’t spent the last week thinking she was coming down with a cold and rigorously checking her temperature until she clued on. Ha, what a stupid thought. “That’s great! Oh… but Adrien?”

 

She smiled down at her kwami, a little sadly because Tikki had managed to know exactly what the problem was before she even said anything about it herself.

 

“Yeah, him too.” Her voice was soft, Tikki immediately picked up on her tone and tried to help as best she could. Tikki always tried the best she could.

 

“Well… an old friend of mine said ‘there’s nothing wrong with liking two people at once. It’s what you do about it that makes a difference’ and I think he’s right. As long as you make a decision and stick to it, you’ll be fine!” Tikki’s smile was sunny and bright, radiating positivity, making her feel like everything would work out okay.

 

She nodded, pulling a fresh outfit from her wardrobe and heading towards the shower. She knew what Tikki was saying made some sort of sense, but it just didn’t sit right with her. Chat liked Ladybug, she knew that much, and now she liked Chat. How he felt about boring old Marinette she had no idea, but it had to be friendly at least or he wouldn’t have kept on coming back. Adrien… was more of a wildcard. She knew he was a bit of a Ladybug fanboy, even getting flustered around her whenever she was suited up, but as far as she knew he only liked her as a friend. Choosing one over the other… it just wasn’t something she could do. No amount of thinking in circles would ever change her feelings, all it was doing was frustrating her.

 

Tikki didn’t follow her into the bathroom, staying hidden in her room instead. Normally she’d stay close, but she was giving Marinette some space to think. Marinette appreciated the gesture.

 

She almost screamed when the water came out cold, someone having moved the dial since she’d last used it. Grumbling at the minor annoyance and at how she always forgot to check the dial before turning the spray on, she adjusted the temperature and tried again. Why where her parents always finding new and creative ways to mildly inconvenience her and keep her on her toes? She loved them to the ends of the earth but they couldn’t half be annoying sometimes.

 

Where was she?

 

Oh yeah, neck deep in boy troubles. Normally, this would be the part where she’d go running to Alya, but she didn’t really think of that as an option right then. Her feelings were too mixed up. It wouldn’t come out right. (she was a little afraid that Alya would take a side, she didn’t want to take a side. That was the whole problem she was having.) Explaining this mystery boy to Alya without her discovering that he was Chat would be nigh on impossible, Alya was way too smart for that and too stubborn and sly to let her pretend he was a stranger. Alya wasn’t an option, leaving her with only Tikki to talk openly and honestly to. It was a good thing Tikki was a good listener, Chat had told her in great detail about how bratty his kwami was. He’d told Ladybug not Marinette, he seemed to have enough sense not to tell the best friend of the girl who ran the LadyBlog about the existence of kwami’s. She did have to hold a straight face every time he talked about his ‘annoying pet cat’ though.

 

Aaaand she was back to thinking about Chat, about his goofy grin and goofier laugh. She was also spacing out in the shower and was going to singlehandedly be responsible for driving up the water bill if she didn’t snap out of it. And snap out of it she did, after a good scrubbing she felt almost human again, her jumbled mind clearing if only for a little while.

 

She figured that since it was a Saturday and the weather was supposed to be miserable, she’d go downstairs and help out with the bakery. Maybe work on the hoodie a little more if she ran out of things to do. She was taking her time with the hoodie, normally she wouldn’t spend so much time on one item, but it had taken something of a backseat to some of her other designs. It was still important to her, most of her focus went on making sure that there wasn’t a single stitch out of place and that everything was perfectly aligned. She’d spent ages trying to figure out why it was so important that she got it right, passing it off as her wanting to make a decent tribute for her partner, and as much as she didn’t want to force her current feelings on the past, she had a sneaking suspicion that the extra perfectionism came from her less than platonic feelings.

 

She didn’t head back to her room first before going down to the bakery, Tikki already knew where to find her if she was needed.

 

The bakery smelled amazing as always, warm spices pervading the air and spreading throughout the whole house as well as the shop. The smell was enough to lure in most passer-by’s, despite the dreary weather, but business was still slower than it would be if it was brighter or warmer out. The heady scents brought a smile to her face, knowing that the food in the shop tasted just as good as it smelled. It didn’t look like there’d be much to help with, she might not even be needed.

 

Her parents confirmed it, ushering her back upstairs before she’d even said a word. They seemed a bit off, but they were sometimes just like that. It was probably because of the shower stunt, ugh. She’d get her own back in some way, maybe leave a whoopee cushion under one of their pillows or something. Not being needed in the bakery left her with a whole lot of time she hadn’t really been counting on having. It’d give her a chance to work on her pet projects at least. Maybe even get so lost in the steady beat of the sewing machine and the rhythmic motions of needlework that she wouldn’t have too much time to spend dwelling on the plethora of issues.

 

Tikki was nowhere to be seen, probably sleeping off the cookies she’d been munching on earlier. She thought that she and Chat had finished off the last of the cookies the night before. Perhaps Tikki had hoarded a few before they’d all been eaten?

 

Or…

 

Or maybe she’d taken them from that tray right there on her desk. The tray with two cups, a now empty plate and a cream coloured piece of paper neatly folded front and centre.

 

Her heart dropped straight to the floor.

 

Two. Cups.   

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So they're both coming to terms with how they feel about each other, my poor smol ace heart is hoping i've built this up enough and it's not coming too far out of the left field. Now they just have to figure out which sidwe of the love square they're both angling for and do something about it. Plagg and Tikki planned everything and Plagg is just sore because now he knows T&S know his kittens identity, poor Plagg, he just wanted to chill with Tikki.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ridiculously long end note because that's what my life is all about

Adrien sat on his bed with a perfectly ordinary cardboard box sat squarely in his lap, looking for all the world like it was nothing special. The contents of the box he’d come to realise that he could do two things with, a present for the same person either way. He’d forgotten to tell Marinette to keep the Chat Noir pyjamas, he hadn’t even realised until after he’d gotten home after the unscheduled sleepover. As soon as he’d noticed, he’d boxed them right back up and carefully wrapped it in a green ribbon, a personal touch from Chat Noir himself. The stirrings of a plan planting themselves firmly in his head. Plans weren’t really his forte, but this one was nagging at him.

 

“Adrien, it’s time to leave for the shoot.” Nathalie called from the hallway, perfectly on time as always.

 

He smiled, knowing now for certain that she did care underneath that layer of apathy. He’d suspected, but hadn’t dared to hope, too afraid to ask until Marinette had confirmed it for him. He’d been a little afraid that his father had started paying her extra to pretend like she cared or something, knowing now how irrational that was for so many reasons, he felt guilty for thinking that of her. Nathalie worked her butt off to keep him on track and she almost always found some way to cover for him when he disappeared. She had to be doing it, his father wouldn’t tolerate him just wandering off mid shoot or him being absent or late as often as he was. It just wouldn’t happen. That was proof enough that she cared for him at least enough to put herself at some risk.

 

“Adrien?” she called out a second time, since he’d once again found himself spacing out. It was a bad habit that was seriously getting annoying.

 

He silently cursed himself for being so blind, not just in regards to Nathalie. Almost every time he’d spaced out recently he’d been thinking of either Marinette or Ladybug, and he was usually thinking about Ladybug approximately 20% of any given day anyway. Thoughts of Marinette didn’t detract from his time spent dreaming about Ladybug, so they were saved for when he was supposed to be doing mundane things, like eating, school, work and/or sleeping. All that unnecessary stuff. It was almost a relief to drift away with thoughts of someone other than the two luckiest people he knew.  

 

The drive to the shoot was… interesting. Nathalie kept on giving him strange little glances whenever she thought he wasn’t looking, almost like she was worried but didn’t want him to know. When she caught him looking at her looking at him, he tried to give her a winning smile, but it came out all wrong. It was all tight lipped and nervous. She didn’t look as often after that, but couldn’t seem to stop entirely. He didn’t think he’d done anything horrendously wrong, nothing that he’d been caught doing anyway. He decided that it probably had something to do with what Marinette had said to her and pushed it from his mind, instead listening absently as she started to list off what would be expected from him at the shoot, hardly anything different than the last however many photoshoots. He didn’t much mind anything she was saying until she mentioned the name of the photographer and he had to repress a groan of frustration.

 

If he’d been getting annoyed at being spoken over earlier that morning, he was going to hate the rest of the day. Pascal was a lovely guy, but he could talk a mile a minute and didn’t let anyone get a word in edgeways, ever. He was the type of guy who did the double cheek kiss thing the first time he met someone, it almost always threw him for a loop. It was supposed to be a business relationship, not a friendly one. His father had drummed that rule into him the first time he’d asked to meet up with some of the other models outside of work. Pascal was only a couple of years older than him, still fairly new on the scene and one of the Agreste companies rising stars. So he was another employee of his fathers, just like Adrien seemed to be. It seemed wrong to him that other people should get to break that boundary and get away with it while he couldn’t.

 

The first thing he noticed upon arriving at the site was Pascal himself, chattering away as usual while working with Geneviève, one of the female models. She was a year younger than him with pitch black hair cut in a neat bob and sharp features, though they didn’t get to work together often so he didn’t really know her much beyond how good she was at her work. Decent enough, but she didn’t have the years of experience that Adrien did. He supposed that not many people his age would. She knew Pascal though, he thought he remembered one of them mentioning that they were cousins or something along those lines. He’d never really been interested enough to snoop.

 

He headed towards the prep room before anyone had to call him over, years in the trade meaning that he knew most locations like the back of his hand anyway. Those he didn’t know he could always guess at. Trying to smile while being cooed over by overeager stylists and dressed in clothes he wouldn’t wear if he wasn’t being paid to do it proved to be more of a challenge than usual, since he’d apparently slipped into a sour mood at some point between waking up and getting to where he was right then. He had to stop himself from sagging in relief when he was finally free from their clutches.

 

He'd have to either cover up his temper or beat it into submission if he wanted to get anything actually useful out of the day’s work. That was something that was easier to think about than actually do. In the end he settled for a happy medium, pretending that his feelings didn’t exist while he tried to pick out what Pascal wanted him to do through the constant prattle. He avoided trying to talk, knowing full well that he’d just be cut across yet again and might break the careful calm he was working so hard to uphold.

 

Geneviève had all the energy that he seemed to be lacking, picking up a bit of the slack for him. Either she’d gotten better at modelling since he’d last worked with her or he was seriously underperforming because in every pose in almost every outfit, he felt like there would be something wrong with his part. Either a pose too wooden or a smile too wide. Maybe even smaller things like an expression not looking genuine enough or a collar folded at a strange angle. It all added up and he knew by the end of it that his father probably wasn’t going to be happy with the results and would more than likely schedule another shoot at the most inconvenient time imaginable as some weird sort of punishment. For a man who always insisted that Adrien should have nothing but the finest education, he was awfully keen on pulling him out of class at every given opportunity if it suited him.

 

Nathalie sent him a pitying look once he was back in his own room again after what had seemed like an age, before closing the door and leaving him be. She most likely had a small mountain of paperwork to be getting back to. That was assuming his father didn’t immediately call her in so she could give him a full debrief of his lacklustre performance. Wouldn’t that be fun, maybe if he’d managed to do badly enough his father would make the effort to see him in person instead of through Nathalie or her tablet.

 

“You’re doing the thing again.” Plagg said, having curled up on his lap like an actual cat would. “Not the feelings thing, the other thing.” He clarified, since Adrien had spaced out for the umpteenth time. He seriously needed to spend less time wrapped up in his own head.

 

He thought about that for a moment, then quickly got distracted by another, much better thought. “Do you think Mari would mind if we dropped by early today?” He wondered out loud, not answering Plagg but not entirely ignoring him either.

 

One condescending green eye glared at him, while the other drooped half-closed sleepily. Adrien knew it was a dumb question, Mari would definitely mind very much. There were rules to his visits and though he often toed the line, he avoided all out breaking them for fear he wouldn’t be allowed to come anymore. He didn’t even need Plagg to say it.

 

“As long as it’s not as Chat she wouldn’t mind. Gives me time to get more sleep. All this work you’re doing is exhausting for me y’know."

 

“Yeah you’re right. I’ll just call Ladybug.” He agreed, happy with the outcome.

 

Plagg let out the worlds most longsuffering sigh, not having the slightest clue what he’d said that could have any way inferred that he wanted to go gallivanting around Paris with Chat Noir’s superhero counterpart. He just wanted a nap. “You realise that isn’t what I said at all, right?”

 

“I’m choosing not to. It’s much more fun pretending you said ‘let’s call Ladybug’ instead.” With that, just giving Plagg enough time to groan in dismay, he called for the transformation and then called for his lady. She took a while to answer for reasons unknown to him, but answer she did.

 

She didn’t exactly seem pleased to see him though, not that he’d expected much else. “Chat?”

 

“Hi bugaboo, wanna hang out?” He sometimes wished he could find the off switch on his own personality, he was being serious darn it! Why did he decide to make it sound like a joke?

 

“Chat Noir, I swear if you transformed just to mess around-“ Her words were harsher than her tone, meaning that she didn’t mind all that much really. She was probably just playing around more than anything else, he had noticed that recently she’d been more tolerant of the way he acted and flirted with her, he just hadn’t wanted to push her in case he messed it up. Even so, he couldn’t help but be slightly put out by what she’d said, though he couldn’t quite identify why. He knew it didn’t actually mean anything, it was just messing around. Probably something to do with his foul mood. Still, he wanted to talk to someone and who better than lady luck herself? Talking to Marinette could wait until later, it felt like forever since he’d last seen Ladybug.

 

“Well yeah I kind of did. I want to talk, what’s wrong with that?” he said it so simply that it surprised even him. They were both quiet for a moment, he was waiting for her answer while she was thinking it over.

 

“Usual place in twenty minutes? I’m in the middle of bake-… something right now, I’ll have to finish that up first.”

 

Huh. Sounded like she was about to say baking. He didn’t know she cooked. That was another item on his Ladybug list right there. He hid his inner glee at having another tidbit of information about his lady’s civilian life since she could see his face through the call. He’d have to save a victory dance for later, Marinette always made a good audience. She’d been witness to many victory dances already. She had the better one though, the cute wiggle thing that he only just now let himself consider to be cute.

 

He ended the call with a customary _“of course my lady.”_ And allowed himself a quick fistpump. Now with twenty minutes to burn before he could meet with Ladybug on the seemingly random but actually very strategic rooftop that they’d adopted as their spot (hehe, ladybug… spot… ladybugs have spots…), well with all that time to spare, he decided to stretch his legs for a bit. Maybe it would help lighten his mood a little. He didn’t want to be too snappish around Ladybug, that’d be just plain rude and she’d probably pick up on it in an instant.

 

Vaulting rooftops, feeling the wind whipping against his face and the burn of his muscles as he ran was something he doubted he’d ever get tired of. It was the kind of exhilaration that he loved the most, being able to forget all his troubles and lend himself entirely to the thrill of just _being free._ As much as he loved following or racing against Ladybug, there was something to be said about running alone, he was free to indulge in a kind of recklessness that his lady would surely scold him for if she were there, like leaving extending his baton until the very last split second or going full pelt over treacherous ground. It was dumb and risky and he would probably end up hurting himself one of these days and that’s why he loved it. It was freedom, it was fun.

 

Still, he had places to be and he couldn’t just run round in circles forever no matter how much fun he was having. He had to get to the meeting place first out of principle, since he’d been the one to invite her out in the first place.

 

Somehow, despite being a full five minutes early, Ladybug had still managed to beat him there. He mock pouted, hiding the surge of elation he felt at seeing her again. It felt to him like it’d been forever, when in fact it had only been a couple of days.

 

She hadn’t spotted him arriving (hehe), so he circled round behind her, sneaking up silently until he was only a few inches away. Just as he was about to pounce, she spun around and launched herself at him in one swift movement. Chat found himself sitting dazed and breathless a good metre away, one red and black spotted heroine pinning him to the rooftop like it was no big deal. Then, not even a second later she seemed to realise exactly what she’d just done and the position they were in and rocketed off him faster than he could blink.

 

“C-Chat! Don’t sneak up on me like that!” He suddenly found that it was impossible to make himself stop staring at her. The look on her face was just priceless. She looked torn somewhere between horror and outrage, but that wasn’t what caught his attention. No, that honour went to the adorable blush that had worked its way across her face and what he could see of her neck. Huh. Ladybug blushing. It wasn’t like that’d been the first time that exact scene had played out, but usually he walked away with a yoyo shaped bruise, this’d certainly be the first time she’d reacted like _that_.

 

Belatedly, he realised that he was still laying where she’d left him, just staring as she reddened further under his curious gaze. Now _that_ was new.

 

She probably thought she’d given him concussion or something. 

 

Yeah, that was probably it. He should make her stop worrying before she combusted or something. It was nice of her to actually worry she’d hurt him, even if he was totally fine. He sprung to his feet as quickly as he could, slapping on a winning grin and making a show of showing exactly how okay he was, even adding in jazz hands for authenticity.

 

Snapping out of whatever had gotten her so embarrassed, she rolled her eyes and motioned for him to follow as she started vaulting rooftops. He just took that as confirmation that she’d been worried he’d gotten hurt, which would have been totally his fault anyway and he wouldn’t have let her blame herself for a second if he had.

 

He followed dutifully after her, not really knowing where he was being taken but trusting her to not lead him somewhere ridiculous. Where they ended up was on top of one of the two tallest towers of Notre Dame.

 

“So nobody sees us or hears us, you wanted to talk right?” She explained without any prompting, still looking faintly frazzled. He totally missed the way she couldn’t look at him without a faint dusting of pink covering her cheeks, putting it down to the fact that they’d just run halfway across the city. Instead he sat himself down and patted the ground beside him, too busy staring at his gloved hands to pay attention to whether she was looking at him or not. Only the warmth against his side told him that she’d settled herself next to him.

 

Now that he was there, alone with his first love in one of the only times they ever willingly met outside of their hero duties, he found that he had no idea what he wanted to say. He wasn’t entirely sure why it was that he’d wanted to talk to her specifically, why he had asked her to meet him right then instead of waiting an hour or so and talking to Marinette as usual. He wasn’t sure and the uncertainty ate at him like he ate one of Marinettes home cooked cookies.

 

Anyone who might have been living in his head, or an outside observer who could look objectively at how he was feeling might be able to identify why he felt that he had to talk to Ladybug instead of Marinette with hardly a moments thought. He was conflicted, conflicted and guilty. For years he had been genuinely convinced that Ladybug was his soulmate, his one and only true love. It was a truth that he’d unknowingly shaped his entire being around, Chat Noir would have a very different personality if he didn’t have Ladybug. but now a new girl had entered his life and had slowly but surely started to capture his heart. Once it had been not so gently presented to him, he’d been forced to acknowledge that both girls held an equal place in his heart and he had no idea how to handle this shift.

 

But an outside observer would probably see that it was a logical, if not inevitable outcome, since both girls, who from his point of view were two separate entities with a few similar characteristics, were very obviously the same person. They may even think that he was being blind for not seeing that he didn’t realise that they were the same person and think the same of her for not realising the same about him, however those hypothetical outside observers would do well to remember that they were both interacting with very different facets of the same personalities. Both people acted very differently in and out of costume, and only now were they both getting to view the other in their entirety. On top of that, Adriens enormous level of respect for his karmic counterpart stopped him from ever really considering for longer than a few moments who the girl behind the mask really was, since she’d explicitly stated that she wasn’t ready for him to know. As it was, an outsider would clearly be able to identify both what Adrien was feeling just by looking at him, even be able to identify exactly why he was feeling what he was feeling, but unfortunately Adrien didn’t have the privilege of being an outside observer to his own life, as much as it sometimes felt like it.

 

Adrien, unfortunately, didn’t have an all-knowing outsider to whisper in his ear what should have been obvious, so he just sat and stared at his entwined fingers with a frown while he tried to identify why it had been Ladybug and not Marinette he’d wanted to talk to, entirely oblivious to the fact that they were both the same person presented to him with a different label.

 

For the life of him he just could not figure it out. He could not understand why he felt such a pressing need to just _be there_ with Ladybug, just to spend time with her. It didn’t even cross his mind that he might be trying to reassure himself that he did still love her or that he wanted one good thing to brighten his mood after a stressful few days that had left him at the end of his tether. He just sat, trembling and staring at his hands oblivious to the increasingly worried heroine who was wondering if she should prod him or something just to snap him out of whatever existential pit he’d fallen into since he was sitting silently contemplating what non-existent people would think of him instead of talking to her like he’d said he wanted to.

 

In short: Ladybug was concerned.

 

Spending time with Chat as Marinette had given her an insight into how he wasn’t always a peppy and flirtatious pun machine, but sitting glaring at his hands like they were personally responsible for everything was new. When he’d asked to meet up she’d assumed he had some sort of ridiculous plan he wanted her to be a part of or that he’d wanted to talk about the note that he’d been dumb enough to leave on her desk in plain sight like an idiot that she’d been freaking out about the whole day to the point that Alya could sense something was wrong all the way from her home without exchanging so much as a word. Alya had said her Mari senses had been tingling, Marinette had just been mildly afraid and wasn’t entirely able to get the idea that Alya was some sort of psychic out of her head. She was even willing to pretend that she wasn’t bothered that her parents knew who he really was before she did (something she knew she only had herself to blame for). She hadn’t expected him to completely shut down on her the moment they settled on the roof. It was just too… not Chat. She didn’t feel comfortable seeing him like this.

                                                                     

“Chat?” She finally prompted, accompanying it with a good old shoulder nudge for good measure since her earlier prod hadn’t gotten through to him. He jolted like she’d electrocuted him and slowly blinked once, twice and finally, finally looked at her. Really looked at her, not through her.

 

“That was weird wasn’t it?” he muttered, forgetting that she was right next to him and could hear him perfectly.

 

“A little,” she agreed, but not unkindly “but now I know something’s up, what’s wrong?”

 

He blinked at her for a third time, thinking on it for a moment and finding that he was drawing a blank. “Nothing…?”

 

She didn’t believe him, but whatever was eating at him, she trusted him to tell her in his own time, not ten seconds after whatever that was.

 

“Sorry, guess I spaced out for a second.” She cocked an eyebrow at him because if that was his definition of spacing out then he had a problem. That went beyond spacing out and straight into the realms of drifting away into the atmosphere like a helium balloon at a fairground. She’d had to grab his metaphorical string and pull him back down to earth before his soul went off to orbit the earth like a leather clad miraculous satellite.

 

She decided to probe deeper “This happen often?”

 

“Yeah…?” he gave her an odd look “Isn’t it normal to zone out sometimes?” yes, it was normal, but that wasn’t what had just happened and what had just happened was not so normal and the fact that he not only seemed to think it was a normal, average thing to happen and that he’d just admitted to it happening more than just the once seriously made her want to punch herself in the face for not noticing that something was up earlier. She may not be an expert on mental health and ‘normal’ human behaviour but she liked to think she knew him enough to tell when the people she cared about had something going on. Especially if it was the type of thing that made them feel the need to reach out to her. Especially if it was Chat.

 

She sighed, leaning back with her arms folded behind her head in lieu of an actual cushion, trusting him to follow her lead. He did, leaning maybe an inch further away than he usually would if presented with such a ripe opportunity to snuggle up close beside her.

 

Okay, something was really bothering that cat.

 

“Wanna talk about it?” she offered up.

 

“Really, it’s nothing… I’m just having a bad day and wanted to see you. That’s all, I swear.” He made a crossing motion over his chest “Cross my heart.”

 

A gust of wind ruffled the already wind tousled mop of hair, a few golden strands getting caught around one of his fake ears in a way that just itched to be put right. Before she knew what she was really doing, she’d already reached out and tucked it back in place. Her hand lingered a moment. She was surprised at herself. Normally she’d have flipped out and accidently shoved him off the roof or stuttered her way through a plethora of garbled words. He was staring up at her with wide green eyes and the thought struck her that she’d give anything to know the boy behind the mask better. She’d had a taste of that with his near daily visits, but that was still Chat. She wanted to know the boy himself, without the bravado of the mask. But… she wasn’t quite ready to tell him that his Princess and his Lady were one and the same. The hypocrisy and selfishness of the thought made her recoil from him with a wince, not realising how close she’d leaned in until she’d put the distance back between them.

 

Maybe she wasn’t up to straight coming out and telling him, the timing was all wrong and she was supposed to be helping Chat, not giving him the fright of his life. But she was all too aware of the looming possibility that she might never be ready. She knew that she was a coward at heart, always finding excuses not to do things if she was afraid of the outcome. It was why she hadn’t given in to his pestering years ago, why she hadn’t confessed to Adrien. She couldn’t do that to Chat, she just couldn’t. He’d always wanted to know and had spent years wondering about her but never really pushed her to reveal identity. Sure he brought it up every so often, but he’d never tried to force the issue.

 

She took a deep breath to gather her courage and looked him dead in the eye, blue meeting green. His eyes were curious, hers apprehensive. She was Ladybug, she could do it.

 

“Hey. I have an idea.” At the very least, she hoped it would distract him from whatever was getting him down. Give him something to fixate on.

 

“Oh?” He’d been watching her quietly, probably half expecting her to call him out on lying to her (even though as far as he knew he hadn’t been lying).            

 

“How about we try and figure out each others identity?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note to readers: I have a lifelong vendetta against the fourth wall and that it was only a matter of time until it leaked across to this fic. Burn that bitch ass wall to the ground who even needs it anyway. I’m only a little sorry (I’m not). 
> 
> Adrien Agreste is actually a hot mess who has no idea what he’s doing literally all of the time. I’m taking the ‘completely withdraws into the abyss’ thing from how he acts in canon for 0.3 seconds in origins after getting caught trying to go to school (maybe a couple of other times idk). Talk to me about Adrien i love him.
> 
> I really want to bring the quantics (from the pv) into a fic somewhere but I think I’m too far in here to bring them in. Bridgette and Felix tho. They call to me. Maybe if i figure out a way to make it happen. I feel like i could maybe work them into it. hmu in the comments or on tumblr if you feel particularly strongly either way.
> 
> (worlds fastest edit because i forgot to link to my tumblr right after saying to find me on tumblr)
> 
> [some dumbass writers tumblr](http://dude-againjustwhy.tumblr.com/)


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm prefacing this with: i was deliriously ill when i wrote the first half of this then my cat curled up on my laptop and deleted the last section so i had to rewrite it. I am not even joking right now.

It was Monday afternoon. It was Monday afternoon and Adrien hadn’t even really thought about who his lady could be behind the mask, why? Because something, no, someone was stopping him. It was stupid. Years, years he’s spent wondering, wanting desperately to find out who she was, a deep-seated longing that was always there. But no matter how long he’d spent pining after that golden tidbit, he just couldn’t bring himself to actually do it. He found that there was still a major problem, whenever he even so much as thought about trying to identify his Lady, another face would pop up in his minds eye instead.

 

Marinette.

 

He wanted her to know him, all of him, before he found his lady. He didn’t know why it was so important to him that she knew him first, but he had a gut feeling that was how it was supposed to be. He was torn between following his gut instincts or his already divided heart. It was a decision he knew he had to make.

 

Should he stay loyal to Ladybug and attempt to guess at her true identity before anything else? Or should he choose to reveal his identity to Marinette first? Why doing that would be betraying Ladybug he couldn’t identify, perhaps because of his newfound feelings for the girl. It’d be too much like picking a side, putting one friend over the other. He was uncomfortable, but he knew he couldn’t just brush it under the carpet and pretend it wasn’t an issue. It wasn’t like he couldn’t do both if he really wanted to, or like both things weren’t going to happen anyway, it was just that option seemed to him to be too much of a copout.

 

Of course, if he’d just revealed himself to Marinette before Ladybug proposed what he’d dubbed ‘the game’, he wouldn’t have been in this position to begin with. He shouldn’t have waited so long, especially not after Nino knew and her parents too. Probably. He’d be kidding himself if he thought they didn’t know, Plagg acted weirdly every time he brought it up and they’d been just a touch _too_ accepting at finding her daughter wrapped around a guy who wasn’t supposed to be there early in the morning. Her parents knew before she did. He was an idiot.

 

Plagg helpfully informed him that he was using his double life as a way to choose between the two girls he loved the most and that the weight of the decision and why he was struggling so much was more than just a choice between who got to know the whole of him first. Also that he was being stupid again. He actually only said that second thing, Adrien figured out the first one all on his own. Plagg was rewarded with having a pillow thrown at his face followed swiftly by an entire wheel of camembert, which just about summed up how Adrien felt about that amazing observation. 

 

It was still Monday afternoon and Adrien found himself once more sitting on his bed with a perfectly ordinary cardboard box sat squarely in his lap, looking for all the world like it was nothing special, a present for the same person either way. He’d sat in that exact position just two days earlier with almost the exact same thoughts and feelings running riot through his mind. Only there was a world of difference.

 

He smiled nonetheless, just as he had two days earlier but for a different reason entirely. Even though nobody could see it apart from one sleepy kwami, he still smiled. He’d come to a silent decision. Yeah. He’d just let Plagg have a nap first, then he’d go talk to Marinette. Hopefully this time he wouldn’t ‘forget’ the box either.

 

He chose Marinette.

 

 

He’d turned up early, way too early. She’d just been about to take care of some important business, but just before she could get started, a tap at her window that was distinctly more purposeful than the steady patter of rain froze her in her tracks. Chat Noir. Of course. She couldn’t exactly turn him away, not when he looked so nervous and hopeful. He was so early that it was still fairly light out, given the time of year that was pretty darn impressive, it got dark as early as 6pm some days, especially when it was an overcast day anyway.

 

The first thing Marinette thought after Chat opened his mouth was _‘that was fast’,_ swiftly followed by an overly sceptical _‘maybe he already knew’._ And what had her favourite black cat said to get that reaction out of her? Pretty much exactly what you’d expect from a dork like him, an echo of what she herself had said.

 

“I want you to try and guess who I am.”

 

He’d barely been there thirty seconds before he said it, and from the way he’d blurted it out, she figured it had taken all of his self-restraint to even last that long. He’d come bearing a fair sized box wrapped with a lime green ribbon, sticking to his aesthetic as always. She couldn’t help but feel like she’d seen the box somewhere before, but it was an ordinary looking box so she didn’t really think much of it. How he’d shielded it from the pouring rain or managed to travel from wherever it was he came from without getting so much as a drop of water on it was something else entirely She’d almost rolled her eyes when she’d caught sight of it, until he’d opened his mouth and dropped that actual bombshell of a statement on her.

 

“But Chat-“ She tried to protest. It came out half-hearted at best.

 

“Princess. Please.” He hadn’t meant to sound like he was begging, but that was exactly what he was doing. He wanted to share this secret with her, to have her know every side of him, Just as he evidently did with her. “Look, I’ll even make it easy for you!” he tacked on, waving the box out towards her so fast and so close to her face that she went cross-eyed looking at it.

 

She hesitated, looking cautiously at the box he’d brought with him, the same box that he was now holding out towards her expectantly at a more reasonable distance from her face. She knew that she should really tell Chat no, she should have expected him to want to tell Marinette his civilian identity ever since he’d asked Ladybugs permission, given how much time they spent together. Especially now, if she was right and he had guessed who she was faster than she’d ever expected him to. The insecurities were still there, but Chat had to have stuck around her for a reason, more than just the food. She hoped it was more than just for the food.

 

She didn’t open the box immediately, setting it down on the chaise between them, instead looking him in the eye. It wouldn’t be cheating if she really did figure it out on her own steam. For the first time in a long while, she really let herself look at him. His shaggy blonde hair, unruly and wild and still slightly damp from being outdoors. The almost luminescent green of his eyes (which he’d confirmed were in fact naturally green anyway), his lithe build. Threads of muscle that had only just begun to fill out his frame. She felt any resistance melt away. He knew her, what harm could it do for her to know him too?

 

This was just Chat. He was her friend, her partner, why on earth had she made him wait this long and tried to stall the inevitable? He’d always wanted to share their identities, though he’d respected her wish to not for a long time. Too long. The thought alone filled her with enough bravado not to screech and cower under her desk until he went away and she wouldn’t have to face up to him like she’d been half tempted to do before.

 

“I take it I’ll actually know your name? It wouldn’t be fair for me to be trying to guess the name of a stranger.”

 

He chuckled, smiling a little nervously and rubbing at the back of his neck in an oh so familiar gesture that always reminded her of somebody else. Normally she would make a conscious effort to try not to think about who it really reminded her of, but she didn’t really see the point in expending the effort given the circumstances. It’d be like wearing a blindfold while someone else tried to hit a piñata.

 

“Well, I certainly hope so.”

 

If… if she did this, then she’ have to tell him that she was Ladybug, once and for all. It was one thing to guess but it was another thing entirely to have it confirmed. She had the box and whatever it contained, he’d have her word. The silly cat probably wouldn’t even get angry if she didn’t, given that she was fairly certain he already knew. Which really only made the pressure that much worse. It wasn’t too late to just tell him that she didn’t want to know, that she really did want to figure it out in her own time. Not only was that a lie taller than the Eiffel Tower, but she knew that she would probably find some way to slither out of actually doing it.

 

No. She was not talking herself down this time. It was a stupid habit, only ever getting in her own way. For once in her life she was just going to go with the flow and stop second guessing herself. Tikki had told her almost the exact same thing, once she’d stopped buzzing around the room excitedly yelling about how proud she was of her for agreeing to properly letting Chat into her civilian life both as Ladybug and Marinette, one and the same.

 

That, and Tikki might legitimately kill her if she didn’t let this happen.

 

That settled, Marinette finally knuckled down and got to business. Frowning as she considered where to start, she settled on trying to match up what she knew about Chat with other people.

 

Okay, so he wanted her to guess his name. there were a lot of names. She knew a lot of people. She hadn’t really realised how many people with names she knew until she tried to think of one in particular. At least her firstborn child wasn’t on the line. She resisted the urge to say ‘Rumpelstiltskin’ and actually thought about it seriously, what did she really know about Chat that might give away his identity?

 

He was tall, blond, had green eyes, a smile that could light up even the darkest room, made the types of jokes she’d expect from a six-year-old, practically lived for puns, he was allergic to feathers, liked anything sweet, he was lonely a lot of the time but tried to hide it, ate like he’d been starved half his life... who else was…? Oh.

 

Slowly she turned, picking up the box from his awaiting arms. She wasn’t sure what was in it still, but if her suspicions were correct…

 

She lifted the lid with trembling fingers, her shoulders immediately shaking with not so silent laughter as soon as she registered what was there in front of her.

 

The Chat Noir pyjamas. Of course.

 

“You figured it out yet?” He sounded less scared than before, taking in her posture and that she was laughing, not screaming hysterically and chasing him out with a broomstick as a good sign.

 

“Chat Noir, you are without a doubt the biggest dork I have ever met. Don’t tell me, you actually bought these specifically for me.”

 

“Yup. What can I say? I saw it and thought of my princess. Well, first I thought ‘huh, cool, Me pyjamas’ then I thought ‘huh, cool, Marinette would look cu- ahem, would like them’ so really, how could I resist?” He was proud of himself, sitting up that small bit straighter and practically preening, right up until Marinette punched him right in the bicep. Not the hardest she could hit but enough to sting. “Ow!”

 

“No _meow_ -ch? You’re slacking Chat. Adrien. Whatever.” Marinette waved her hand dismissively. She was more okay with this than previously anticipated, like it was something she’d already known but had never really thought about. A lot like how you can always see your own nose but don’t really notice it all that much. Actually, it was more like the sort of reaction that she had when someone started talking about something they did together that she didn’t quite remember happening, but could still tell had really happened. No doubt she’d have her meltdown later when Chat/Adrien wasn’t around to witness it. Reacting badly now would just about be the worst thing she could do. Tikki wouldn’t tell.

 

“What was that for!” He squawked, rubbing his sore arm.

 

“Don’t just buy me things!” She scolded, with a glare that could make even the healthiest, most luscious of plants wither.

 

“I can afford it!” He defended himself, forcing her to acknowledge that yes, he could afford it because he was Adrien and Adrien was pretty well off since he had a set allowance coming from his modelling job as well as a bulky savings account he was due to get access to as soon as his birthday rolled around. His birthday that was actually only a couple of weeks away.

 

“That doesn’t matter!” She looked set to carry on with her protests, but she froze up. It worried Adrien, the way she suddenly stopped moving mid exclamation, eyes widening in horror at some realisation she’d just had. That had been the sort of reaction he’d been half expecting in the first place.

 

He prodded her, just to see if it would get her to snap out of it. It didn’t, but he figured that she’d sort herself out in her own time and pulled her physics textbook from her desk, settling down to read and wait her out. Maybe now she’d actually let him help tutor her in the subjects she wasn’t quite so good at instead of using him as an excuse not to study. He’d have to bear that in mind.

 

He’d worked his way through four whole chapters and was a good way through the fifth when, like a kettle on the boil, Marinette made a high pitched keening sound.

 

“You doing okay there princess?” He asked, not even looking up. As much as he wanted to look, there was a very interesting diagram that just demanded his attention. Never mind that he didn’t want to accidently launch Mari straight back into whatever thoughts she’d just emerged from.

 

“ _You saw.”_ She squealed, sounding an awful lot like the nervous Marinette of not so long ago.

 

Frankly, he had no idea what it was that he’d seen or if she was referring to something he’d done with or without the mask. He carried on studying the diagram, as if he didn’t have the exact same book at home or like he hadn’t already read that book three times through.

 

“ _The akuma_ … merde!”

 

He risked a glance in her direction, mildly amused that out of everything, she was freaking out over the akuma thing. Never mind that it was now painfully obvious exactly how much time he spent in her company or that he’d been calling her princess and other such pet names or that he’d been freeloading off her generosity. Even if he was beginning to wonder if she would do that anyway, since he was seriously convinced that giving away free food to friends was a genetic trait or a family tradition, because everyone in her family he’d met had fed him. Needless to say he was eager to meet the rest of the family to test his hypothesis. In the name of science.

 

“Language princess, my ears are sensitive you know.” He grinned, still wondering why she wasn’t all that shocked at his identity. She’d figured it out pretty quickly considering how careful he’d been not to lay too many hints in his previous visits. Her reaction combined with Nino’s, he was starting to wonder if the whole of Paris didn’t know who he was behind the mask. “Besides, _that was awesome!”_

 

Next thing he knew, he was laying on the cold hard ground, with Marinette on top of him. She’d tried to shove him from his perch on the chaise and he, flailing wildly, had dragged her down with him. She found it hilarious, he was just trying his best not to spontaneously combust from how hard he was blushing. A role reversal if he’d ever seen one.

 

“What’s the matter kitty?” She had her chance. She hated herself for it but dammit, she was going to take it “ _Cat got your tongue_?”

 

Adrien gave her a blank look. Devoid of all emotion, still recovering from being pinned under her and not quite having full brain functions.

 

“Did… Did you just pun at me?”

 

“Don’t worry, there’s no _claws_ for alarm.”

 

“Oh my god.”

 

Oh how the tables had turned. It was his job to make the puns and everybody else’s responsibility to hate them. The balance of the universe had been thrown out of whack and it was his job to make it right. No, not his job, it was his duty.

 

“And don’t you dare use any more of those corny cat puns.”

 

“But Mari, it’s difficult to know where to draw _feline_ when it comes to these puns! You’re quite _fur_ -tunate that I’m such an expert don’t you know! It takes a deli- _cat_ touch!” he took one look at her face and decided that yes, he’d just made the worst decision of his life and all that could save him now was… more puns.

 

“Now, I’m _purr-_ itty sure that if we both take ade- _cat_ pre- _claw_ -tions then there’ll be no su- _fur_ -ing or _mew_ -sery involved. One of the more _purr-_ gressive solutions of _claws_ , is if we all agree to be _fur_ -ends and _cat_ on with our lives!” Never before had the world seen such well-crafted punnery in such a concentrated form. It was an underappreciated artform. In the future, historians would write about the rise of punnery and memeing, his name in bold comic sans as one of the pioneers of the craft.

 

“If you don’t stop with that right now then I’ll be arrested for _fur-_ st degree _purr_ -der. Are you finished yet?” she regretted her question before she’d even finished speaking. How dare he make her listen to that with her own two ears.

 

He looked like he’d been given the world in that moment. She’d think it was cute if she wasn’t being crushed by the weight of her impending doom. That became a whole lot more literal when Chat rolled their bodies, pinning her beneath him. Her breath caught in her throat because _Adrien was on top of her, pinning her to her floor oh dear lord above_ but of course she should have known. He was Chat Noir, he only had one true love. How could Marinette ever compete when he was so hopelessly in love with… puns.

 

“You, are under Agreste. Wait, wait no I got a better one. No need to be so _Agrestive_ Mari, they’re only puns!” He had the nerve to snicker, apparently oblivious to their beyond compromising position, but of course, it was Adrien. Oblivious was practically his middle name.

 

“Please say that you’re going to stop now.”

 

“Nope!”

                                                                                                                                                                                 

Fifteen minutes and an untold number of puns later, Marinette regretted ever finding out that her crush and good friend of the last four years was a filthy pun lover. More than that, she regretted ever challenging him to begin with, especially now that she knew that he had her number and could strike at anytime, anywhere any place. Not even school would save her from pun hell.

 

All the punnery gave her a good excuse to grab a nearby broom and chase him out so she could get back to what she was supposed to be doing. But not before one last thing she had to give him. It was kind of redundant though. She’d already set it all up though, no point in wasting all that effort. She pulled a Tupperware container that rivalled the Chat pyjama box in terms of plainness and handed it to him. If she was blushing up a storm that was nobody’s business but her own.

 

“Is this quiche?”

 

“Yup.”

 

He gave a very manly, very happy ear-piercing screech, disappearing into the what-was-now-a-muted-sunset-rather-than-a-dark-rainy-afternoon with his prize carefully tucked under his arm. It wasn’t until he was already out of sight that she remembered that she’d clean forgotten to tell him about the whole Ladybug thing, he hadn’t brought it up himself and she’d been too busy getting annoyed by his awful puns to remember.

 

She had something she still needed to do, something that was if anything, more important than before.

 

But first….

 

“Hey, Tikki? Pinch me, I think I’m dreaming.”

 

She didn’t.

 

 

Adrien could not wipe the grin off his face. Not for the life of him.

 

Not only had Marinette taken the news well (other than the dead akuma related intermission), but he’d walked away with a quiche. A quiche made by his princess, who just so happened to be one of the most amazing cooks he’d ever met. After such a kind and enticing gift, what choice did he have other than to head home immediately so he could eat.

 

He only left his room to go sneak some cutlery from the kitchen because he was hungry but he wasn’t quite ‘eat a fairly large quiche with your bare hands’ hungry. He still had some class. It wasn’t a cheesy quiche so he didn’t even have to worry about Plagg eating it when he left the box out on his bed.

 

He dodged the household staff and stayed out of sight from as many of the security cameras dotted around the house as possible, being hit by how quiet his house really was. At Marinettes there was always some sort of sound, the far off humming of electricals or music, she liked to play music out loud, but there was nothing here. Not even the ticking of a clock. It made him uncomfortable, especially since he had enhanced hearing and it was _still_ too quiet.

 

It did mean that he could easily hear anyone coming towards him though, which was great really since no sooner did he reach the kitchen did he hear the tell-tale click clack of heels headed to where he was. He had just about enough time to grab a fork and dive under the tablecloth before Nathalie appeared. He probably hadn’t needed to hide since it was her, but better safe than sorry.

 

She was talking to someone over the phone, the half of the conversation leaving him confused and a little concerned.

 

“I’ve already told you I’m going to talk to him,” she sounded stressed, in her own unique way where it came across more condescending or bored than actually stressed to anyone who didn’t know her well enough. A different kind of stress, not the ’I have forty things to do in the next half hour and we just ran out of coffee’ kind of stress he’d gotten accustomed to. “look, I can’t just barge in and demand answers, I could get fired… Do you really think that my replacement would let Adrien get away with as much as he does?” That was followed by an irritated sigh.

 

If he’d been suited up then there was no doubt his cat ears would have perked at the mention of his own name. As it was, his reasonably human ears strained to focus harder. He didn’t know who Nathalie was talking to or what she was planning, but he got the feeling that this wasn’t a conversation he was supposed to be hearing.

 

Nathalie shifted, placing her armful of paperwork on the counter and leaning back against it, blissfully unaware of her audience of one. Hopefully.        

 

She continued on after a moment of listening to whatever whoever was on the other end of the line.

 

“Just… Just give me a week…” He didn’t think he’d ever heard his father’s usually unflappable personal assistant sound so unsure of herself. It just didn’t happen. If someone was putting enough pressure on Nathalie to make her like that… or maybe it was just something she really and truly cared about? He didn’t know enough about the context, who it was that she’d been talking with or what they’d been saying. All he knew was that it involved him somehow and that it was an issue serious enough for Nathalie’s job to be under threat if she did something, whatever it was she was being asked to do, wrong. That was the last thing he wanted. Nathalie had grown on him in the time he’d known her, she was good to him. Gorilla was too, but it wasn’t the same.

 

He ended up hiding under that table until a good five minutes after Nathalie collected her armful of papers and left the room, a fresh coffee in hand. He felt like he could do with a shot of caffeine himself, except that was a horrible idea because any sort of stimulant would have him bouncing off the walls what with his empty stomach.

 

An answering grumble from the said organ reminded him why he was there to begin with. He’d been holding on to the fork so tightly that the swirling engraved pattern left an angry red imprint on the palm of his hand. He only winced a little, heading back to his room with just as much care as he’d come with. He may have had other things on his mind, but getting caught wasn’t worth the hassle.

 

He fell into his bed with a soft ‘whump’, narrowly avoiding the plastic box with the quiche his princess made him in it. Even the thought of Marinette going to all the effort of hand making him something wasn’t enough to stop him from thinking on the strange, one-sided phone call. Plagg drifted silently over to his cheese pile, only casting him a single worried look before deciding that there was nothing he could say in that moment.

 

The encounter in the kitchen left him with a sour taste in his mouth and a weight in his stomach that he couldn’t quite shake. His poor mood from before had returned with a vengeance.

 

For what it was worth, the quiche was delicious.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 10 points to whoever guesses what's going to happen next chapter. what the points are for is a closely guarded secret, so closely guarded that even i don't know. That's how secret.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is full of srs bsnss and tbh this is probably about as heavy as this fic is gonna get because i'm all about the fluff and funnies
> 
> And honestly thank you guys for being so understanding on why this chapter was so late i love you and may or may not have screencapped the comments you left so i didn't lose them!
> 
> *edit* fixed the thing that annoyed both readers and me finally, sorry it took so long!

Chloe and Sabrina were perched at the foot of the blonde girls bed, pouring over the latest entry on the Ladyblog. There wasn’t much more than there had been the day before but they’d already finished all their schoolwork and Chloe’s father was due home any minute so they didn’t dare start anything that they wouldn’t be able to finish. So they settled for pretending to look at the screen while talking about unnecessarily deep subjects. If anyone asked, they’d say they were just talking about the best shade of eyeshadow to match their clothes.

 

It didn't take long for the conversation to turn in a slightly different direction. Chloe was almost totally incapable of holding in her emotions.

 

“It’s been two weeks already! Two weeks and that vile hag Nathalie still hasn’t even tried to talk to Adrien’s dad!” She whined, nearly splashing nail polish on her duvet from her erratic hand gestures.

 

Sabrina rolled her eyes and muttered something in assent. It wasn’t that she didn’t like Adrien, everyone liked Adrien. It was more a matter of ‘my girlfriend won’t stop talking about the same guy whenever we’re alone together and it’s getting to be a problem’ thing. That, and the phone calls. Chloe Bourgeois was not, and never will be a quitter, it was part of her charm. Which made her near daily phone calls to check in with Mr Agreste’s personal assistant both endearing and irritating.

 

She could care less about the way she not so subtly threatened the woman, after all, that was just how Chloe was and from what she understood, Nathalie had known Chloe since she’d still been toddling around in nappies. It was hard to feel threatened by someone you still saw as a child.

 

“And Sabrina, would you believe it? She told me, _me_ that she’d have it done within a week! Two weeks later and nothing, just who does she take me for?” And so she continued, as she had been for the last fifteen solid minutes. It was a new record, she’d gotten into the habit of waiting for her most beloved and wonderful partner to rant herself out the old record had been ten minutes. Not that she’d been keeping record at all.

 

“Chloe?” Sabrina finally interjected, deciding near the twenty minute mark that Chloe really wasn’t going to stop anytime soon, “Are you sure there aren’t better things we could be doing right now?”

 

“Like what?” She huffed, still wound tight from her long-winded ranting and not meaning to have so much bite to her words.

 

Sabrina felt a slow, sly smile take root on her features. By her estimate, her father should already be home and since he hadn’t come straight in to say hello to his daughter, he was probably already on his way out.

 

“Oh, I don’t know… _just girl things?”_

 

It would have been a lot more alluring if it wasn’t for the little snorting giggle Sabrina followed it up with. The statement had the desired effect though, since Chloe shot her an apologetic look before leaning in towards her, inching closer and closer. They hovered for a moment, the millimetres between them seeming more like miles.

 

And then Chloe’s phone rang.

 

* * *

 

“Gabriel.”

 

It should have been her lunch hour, but just like on most other days, the hour had been cut short. She could have taken the full hour if she really wished it, but she tended to prefer finishing as much as possible over leaving things for another time. She’d rushed her mornings work just so she’d have time for this without setting her back.

 

“That’s Mr Agreste or Sir to you, Nathalie.” Gabriel was sat at his desk, as he was for the majority of his waking hours on most days. She smiled a strained little smile and stood in front of the desk, ignoring the chair completely. The chair was for guests and colleagues, not for personal assistants.

 

The giant stylised painting of Mrs Agreste was disconcerting. It was a magnificent piece of art, inspired by Klimt, but how Gabriel could work with such a prominent reminder of his missing wife was beyond her, though this was the same man who ‘protected’ his son by confining him to the house and ‘punished’ him by keeping him out of school. He wasn’t the kind of man who could be relied on to make totally rational decisions outside of a work environment.

 

She’d been delaying this particular conversation for almost three weeks, but despite all her hopes, Gabriel still hadn’t fulfilled his promise to Adrien. She’d even tried subtly taking on more of his workload so he’d have the time to do it himself, since if he’d had any intention of asking her he’d have done it in the last three weeks. To no avail. Nothing had changed.

 

“It’s about Adrien.” She started off, trying not to flinch when he lazily lifted a hand to silence her. She wasn’t above admitting that she was afraid of what he could do when she confronted him. She could be fired, yes, but he could also totally ruin her life. One bad reference from him and she’d never be able to get hired anywhere else, and that was if he was feeling kind. He may not ever physically hurt anyone, but he could hurt people in much worse ways if he so desired. That kind of power in anyone’s hands would set anyone on edge, especially someone who was about to go toe to toe with them. Gabriel wasn’t a bad man; he just wasn’t always a fair one.

 

“You don’t need to tell me Nathalie. I’m already aware.”

 

She blinked once in surprise but otherwise didn’t react, he just sighed and put his drawing tablet down, finally giving her his full attention. A blessing and a curse.

 

“You… are?”

 

In lieu of a verbal response, a single folder was pulled out from a desk drawer and slowly pushed across the desk towards her. He did it nonchalantly enough, but she knew that he was watching for her reaction.

 

She picked it up with a steady hand, resting it on the crook of her arm so she could open it without spilling its contents. The folder itself wasn’t thick or heavy, but had some weight to it, just enough to confirm that it did in fact contain something. Not that Gabriel Agreste would have passed her an empty folder. She almost didn’t want to look. Whatever was in the folder, it was giving her a bad feeling.

 

What she found was pictures. Not many, and certainly nothing obscene, but they were pictures nonetheless.

 

To say that her blood ran cold would be an overstatement. Instead, she felt mild disappointment, immediately followed with a profound sense of sadness and resignation.

 

And there she’d thought that she’d covered the boys tracks adequately enough. Obviously she’d been wrong, since there in front of her sat visual proof of his disobedience.

 

The photo’s spoke volumes. At least three showed Adrien leaving the Dupain-Cheng residence, usually with a bag in hand. A few were of him out and about, most likely in places where he wasn’t meant to be at the time of the pictures taking.

 

“He’s been sneaking around behind our backs, as if he didn’t think we’d find out.” Gabriel scoffed, fixing his icy gaze on the incriminating folder, she half expected it to feel cooler to the touch because of it “Foolish behaviour from a foolish child. And to think I believed him, _we_ believed him when he spoke out of turn. I knew that I should never have been so lenient, if I hadn’t allowed him to go to that damned school-“

 

“Your back. He’s been sneaking around behind your back.” Nathalie had to interrupt before Gabriel said something he wouldn’t be able to come back from. He had too much pride to go back on his word and she knew from experience that it was better to stop him from saying anything to begin with.

 

A single, elegantly crafted blond eyebrow made an effort to meet his hairline. Gabriel cut off his semi-impassioned monologue midway at her totally unexpected interruption. Of course he was surprised. She never interrupted him. Never. It just didn’t happen. Not like this.

 

“Well yes that’s what I was saying-“ the full implications of her words chose that moment to sink in “Excuse me?”

 

She cringed internally, finding herself at a metaphorical crossroads. She could still go on with this, having finally worked up the courage to put everything on the line and confront her boss, the man who held her future by a string, or she could back off and let things run their course.

 

“I said your back. Not ours. I knew full well where Adrien was. I simply elected not to inform you, Gabriel.”

 

“Excuse me? Nathalie, I know you care for the boy but there’s no need to lie-“

 

“Gabriel. I’m not lying.” She was half lying, she didn’t insist on knowing Adriens whereabouts 24 hours a day, some of the pictures she couldn’t place exactly, but there was no point in letting Gabriel know that. “He was losing too much weight and I saw fit as the one in charge of his care to intervene.”

 

“I thought you were better than that Nathalie. And you will address me as ‘sir’ while you’re under my employ.” Her ‘Mr Agreste’ privileges had obviously just been taken away. A shame.

 

Nathalie felt the first stirrings of anger “Of course, _sir_. Now,” She took a deep breath then met his eyes, trying to convey her displeasure. “a certain miss Bourgeois has been hounding me for weeks over a promise you made to your son in my absence.”

 

She didn’t like having to namedrop the mayors daughter, but if she had to deal with those kids pestering her at all hours then her boss could at least know exactly who he was dealing with. Between the Dupain-Chengs, Miss Cesaire, Mr Lahiffe and Miss bourgeois, she could hardly blink without one of them making their presence known. The Bourgeois child had been the worst by far, with near constant phonecalls that only intensified once a week had passed. As much as it warmed her heart to know that her charge had such a supportive group of friends, she wished that at least one of them would understand her position. She’d had to find the perfect time, find the perfect arguments and loopholes in Gabriel’s words. Without meaning to sound paranoid or distrusting, she’d read over her own employment contract at least five times in the last fortnight alone.

 

The thought had occurred to her more than once that there was something inherently wrong with the situation as a whole, that she had to spend weeks researching how best to tell a father how to not unintentionally damage his son without getting herself fired in the process. 

 

“Now, Sir, I know that I’m overstepping my bounds but I believe that it is for the best. We have to talk about Adrien and what’s best for him.”

* * *

 

The last two weeks had been hell on Marinettes nerves. How they hadn’t just fizzled out from the constant onslaught of stress she always seemed to be under was a mystery so deep that the answer may be discovered in a century or two by overeager archaeologists, the answer would be the find of the millennium.

 

She still hadn’t outright told Adrien that she was Ladybug and he was infuriatingly good at pretending he didn’t already know, as if he was refusing to acknowledge her until she came out and told him herself. Chat Noir loved his games and this was one that she wasn’t going to let herself lose.

 

Almost nothing had changed between them. He still came round hers in the evenings, she didn’t think she’d have been able to cope without her near daily dose of Chat, even if half the time he’d detransform and be Adrien not Chat. Though now she knew they were the same person, she’d found herself spending a considerable amount of time trying to compare the two sides of his life and other than Adrien being a little tamer, she could have kicked herself for not seeing the similarities earlier. She kept telling herself it was just because of kwami magic, but that felt too much like an excuse for her too fully accept it as a fact. Adrien Agreste, light of her life, was Chat Noir, her trusted friend and partner.

 

And she, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, had been stupid enough to fall for the same boy under two different names and not so much as suspect that they were one and the same until he outright told her.

 

One thing she was grateful for was that she was now free to talk to him without the last scant traces of the chronic nervousness she’d suffered from for years. Sure, there’d been a marked improvement in recent months anyway, but she’d still found herself stuttering or rambling on in front of Adrien if they were left alone or if she’d been overexposed to his radiant presence. Now that she knew that he was the same dork who once managed to get stuck up a tree because he dropped his staff and couldn’t get down, it was difficult to see him in the same light. She didn’t understand how the tree incident had happened, he had a climbing wall in his bedroom and she knew he could use it without a problem. She’d had to put it down to cat tendencies because otherwise she’d been drawing a blank. It would explain why he was so embarrassed and confused afterwards though.

 

She also may have made him lunch every. Single. Day. It was less awkward when she knew he’d been consuming every crumb she’d pushed towards him for weeks already anyway. An actual full meal a day was much more nutritious than a small mountain of bakery goods.

 

Her parents, while proud of her newfound determination in the kitchen, were approximately two seconds away from staging an intervention just because of the sheer amount of food she was churning out daily. They never outright asked her why she was making it or how she managed to get rid of all of it without fail, but they were getting more than a little obvious in their half-questions.

 

She hadn’t just been making lunch for Adrien. She’d opened the offer up to her two other closest friends as a cover. Because she was the master of discretion and she could only imagine Chloe’s reaction if she just started bringing Adrien lunch seemingly out of the blue. That was one world class meltdown she’d expertly skirted around at the cost of a few extra ingredients and a few wistful looks from her other classmates.

 

Between her intense comfort around AdriChat and her intense avoidance strategies and her equally intense determination to feed that boy, she hadn’t given herself a spare moment just to unwind and relax.

 

It took Tikki physically dragging her away from the kitchen and shoving a controller into her hand for her to finally snap out of whatever trance-like funk she’d been in.

 

An hour of beating down unsuspecting punks online on umsIV with her ever-trusty red and black robot later and Tikki finally spoke up.

 

“Marinette…”

 

“Yes Tikki?” She set her controller down and left the match she’d just started. Her inbox pinged with a notification not ten seconds later.

 

“I know Adrien means a lot to you but… Don’t you think you’re taking it too far?”

 

Marinette was genuinely confused by the Kwami’s words, even more so by the scolding tone of voice. Tikki had called her out when she’d needed it before, but why she felt the need to now was beyond her. Which was probably part of the point. “What do you mean?”

 

“You’re forgetting to just be you! Everything you do recently is for Adrien and it’s not healthy Marinette! First it was the cookies and the evening visits which wouldn’t be so bad but now you spend your whole day planning them and at school you spend all your time doing something for _Adrien_.” Tikki was buzzing around the room and talking her little heart out “and I understand that you want to help him but just being there would be enough. You don’t ned to stop everything.” She paused, looking over at her chosen. If she was a flower, Marinette would have wilted under the kwami’s tirade.

 

The peppy soundtrack from the game was still playing in the background, the pause menu pulsing with colour every few seconds in time with the beat. Marinette barely heard it though, too busy staring at the little god who’d drifted her way over to sit on her outstretched palms.

 

“I know. It’s just… it’s difficult. I don’t want to see him get hurt.” A part of her laughed at herself for how stupid that sounded. Yeah, because he totally didn’t throw himself between her and danger at every given opportunity. It was a different kind of hurt she was worried about though, the type that couldn’t be cured by her lucky charm. “If there’s something I can do to stop him hurting, why shouldn’t I do it?”

 

The look Tikki gave her could almost have been called pity, but was really something more like understanding. “Sometimes you have to put yourself first. If you helping Adrien means you don’t get any time to be Marinette anymore, maybe it’d be better to hold yourself back? You’re not the only one on his side Marinette.” Seeing that she was still on the fence, Tikki carried on “And besides, do you think Adrien would be happy with what you’re doing if he could see how much it was affecting you? I’m not telling you to stop completely, just to calm down.”

“But it’s his birthday tomorrow and I’ve been working on his present and Tikki!” She wailed “What if it’s not good enough or something goes wrong and he never has fun again and I could have stopped it that’d be awful and I’d never be able to show my face again I’d have to move to China and stay with maman’s relatives even though I can’t speak the dialect and-“ She was nearly pulling her hair out from her self-induced freak-out.

 

“Marinette! That’s not calm!” Tikki cut in, giggling despite herself. The freak out was a good sign, really. “Do you see what I mean? He’d love anything you gave him just because it’s from you.”

 

She didn’t get an answer, but Marinette did pick up the controller from where it’d fallen on the floor at some point and resumed playing. It turned out, to nobody who’d ever played an online game’s surprise, that the notification from when she’d stopped playing was a private message. A poorly strung together slew of vulgarities the likes of which would never be allowed to grace the screen of the in-game chat. Marinette, being completely above such things, rolled her eyes and deleted it. But not before sending back a single ‘lol’. Whoever it was, they didn’t bother to reply.

 

Four rounds later, Marinette found herself agreeing with Tikki. She had been taking it too far, as usual. 

 

She’d let herself get so bogged down in what was best for Adrien that she’d forgotten to think about what was best for her. Cooking every day, spending money she should have been using on other things on ingredients, what time she didn’t spend actually with Adrien had been spent on his birthday present or sleeping. It was above and beyond what was expected of her to do as a friend.

 

She’d just wanted him to be safe and happy and to protect him the only way she knew how. But she was smothering him, keeping him within arm’s reach at all times and obsessing over him in a way that would have had even 15 year old Marinette wincing and shaking her head in shame.

 

She’d stopped doing the things she loved, no progress had been made on any of her designs, not even the Chat Noir hoodie that Chat himself had been so excited to see completed and this gaming session was the first she’d had in almost a month without Chat around.

 

If he knew, what would he say? She’d burn herself out if she carried on like this. There was no way Adrien would be happy. He’d spent his whole life being overprotected by someone he loved, he didn’t need that from her too.

 

God, what an idiot she was.

* * *

 

Meanwhile, Adrien had been having a great day.

 

It was the day before his 18th birthday and he was practically bouncing off the walls in excitement. Plagg had given him a present a day early, even if it had just been a wheel of cheese that Adrien was 90% certain he’d probably bought to begin with and a card that had ‘huppa borth’ written in crayon with a wonky looking cat on the front. It meant a lot to him anyway. Plagg was just happy he got to keep the cheese.

 

He was still no closer to figuring out who Ladybug was behind the mask, but he found that he didn’t really mind all that much. Of course he was frustrated, but she’d made no mention of his identity either so he didn’t beat himself up over it too much.

 

It wasn’t for a lack of trying though, it was just that he’d found himself still with the same problem as before. Whenever he tried to think of a maskless Ladybug, he ended up thinking of Marinette instead. He’d tried bringing it up with Plagg once or twice and had either been laughed out the room for reasons entirely unknown to him or been given the flattest kitty stare there ever was.

 

But he was going to be an adult in…. 6 hours! An actual, of age, bonafide grown up! A fully licensed adult, but still young enough that he’d soon be enjoying the best of both the adult and teenage worlds. Never before had he felt more like a child in all the best ways. With any luck his father would finally start treating him like the adult he very nearly was too, even though he wouldn’t dare to pin his hopes on it.

 

How was he spending his pre-birthday day? Doing whatever he wanted, apparently. Nathalie had set aside the next three days and kept his schedule clear as her own personal present to him and he’d chosen to spend the day out and about with Nino having some quality bro time. 

 

Nino had handed him a giftbag that had ‘do not open until it’s time’ and ‘no really dude I mean it’ written all over it in bold red capital letters. He’d even taped the top of the bag shut. Adrien very purposefully chose not to think about what Nino must think about his self-restraint, since whatever he thought was probably 100% right.  

 

Ever since the bubbler incident, Nino had taken it upon himself to make sure Adrien always had some sort of celebration around his birthday without fail. The first year he’d kept it fairly low-key, just a trip to the cinema to see a film of Adriens choice (a truly hilarious work of romantic comedy art, he’d cried twice) and since then there’d always been something. Sometimes he felt like Nino was a better friend than he really deserved.

 

So, that day they’d spent together had been amazing in all the best ways. First they’d stopped off at a café for lunch and Nino had insisted on ordering for him, then they’d gone and found a nice area full of dinky little shops. Nino apparently knew every shop owner in Paris, if the way they all greeted him by name was anything to go by. The people at the music shop had been especially friendly. To top it off, just before it was time for Nino to leave and Adrien to go home, laden with more bags full of things than he remembered buying, they found a park to sit in and just… talked.

 

He’d hated to see Nino go. But all good things must come to an end, or at least, most of them did. Depends on the context, but the day did have to end eventually and the Gorillia was waiting and like hell was he going to drag his shopping bags and sealed birthday bag all the way back to his house on foot if he could help it. Which he could, because the Gorillia was right there sitting in the car with his impassive face. Oops.

 

It took a while to fight through the traffic and by the time the car was settled in the garage again there was only five hours left until he was an adult. Nathalie met him at the door, which should really have been his first clue that something was off, but he remained blissfully in the dark.

 

His second hint should have come when she led him further into the house, not to his fathers study like she usually did if she took him anywhere within his own home, but to his bedroom. He just thought it was slightly weird but that she’d been acting slightly off for a while now anyway and brushed it off as probably nothing. There was a slight niggle in the back of his mind but he just put that down to paranoia.

 

His third and final clue was seeing his father sat on his bed, holding onto a teddy that he vaguely remembered being given when he was five.

 

A hand, slim and well-manicured, found its way to his shoulder and he let out the breath that had frozen in his lungs.

 

Maybe it was a birthday thing and his father was extra early? No, the atmosphere was all wrong for that.

 

Maybe he’d messed up somehow and was going to be yelled at? No, that wasn’t the face of an angry man. Besides, the great Gabriel Agreste didn’t do yelling.  He actually looked… sad? He could hardly believe he was seeing what he was seeing, his father actually looked sad and was sitting on his bed on the eve of his 18th birthday holding a stuffed toy in a deathgrip. He actually looked human.

 

“Father?”

 

Gabriel startled, nearly dropping the teddy. Instead he just gently placed it in a suitcase before turning to face him.

 

“Hello, Ad- son.” Gabriel shifted a little, his eyes wandering back to the suitcase every few seconds.

 

Wait… what was with the suitcase? Was he supposed to be going somewhere?

 

“Adrien, your father and I had a talk.” Nathalie cut through his confusion with her clear, concise way of speaking. “I’ll leave the two of you alone. Call if you need me.” And just like that, she was gone. He was left alone with his father (and Plagg, but at this point his presence was a universal constant).

 

“Um… what’s all this about?”

 

“It’s come to my attention that recently I haven’t exactly been the ideal parent. In fact, both Nathalie and I agree that it might do us both some good if well…” He narrowed his eyes “Now, I don’t want you to think that this is because of you. You have done nothing wrong Adrien.”

 

“Sometimes… Sometimes I get so afraid of losing the things I love that I hold onto them too tightly and I lose sight of what’s important. I forgot to treat you like my child and for that, you have my deepest apologies.” Adrien just gaped, half convinced that there must have been an akuma attack and his father had been hit or possessed or _anything but this_.

 

His father, the impassive monolith who he’d once been lucky enough to see sneeze (he might have imagined it, he’d been half convinced he was hallucinating), was having a feelings talk with him. There was absolutely no way that this was going to end well for him.

 

“So… we thought that it’d be good for everyone if we were to spend some time apart. Arrangements have been made for you to stay somewhere temporarily.” Adrien could almost feel his heart drop so hard that it hit the floor and shattered into a million tiny pieces.  

 

“You’re getting rid of me.”

 

His father had finally had enough of him. He didn’t know what he must have done this time but it’d been bad enough to tip him over the edge and just throw him away like a piece of used litter. He wasn’t going to cry. It was his own fault, if he’d just done as he’d been told and listened to his father in the first place then none of this would be happening and he’d be able to turn 18 in peace.

 

But then, if he’d just sat down and done as he was told, where would he be? He would never have gone to school, would never have made the friends he had and, never would have found Plagg (probably) and… well. He’d have never met Ladybug. He’d have never met Ladybug, Marinette either.

 

Maybe he knew that, but that didn’t do much more than take the edge off the sting of his father’s rejection.

 

“It’s only as temporary as you want it to be. You can come back any time, you’re not the one being punished.” Gabriel was trying, he really was. It had taken what, four years? More? But he’d finally had his eyes opened for him. Nothing would change overnight, nothing substantial anyway. He knew that, he wanted some time away from the one his behaviour was hurting the most, if only to protect his son. He’d been convinced that his decision was the best for both of them, but seeing the look on Adrien’s face was almost enough to break his resolve. Almost.

 

“But why do I have to leave?”

 

The Gabriel Agreste Adrien was used to would have told him to stop whining and just do as he was told, wherever that man was, it wasn’t what the one sitting in front of him did “It’s for the best Adrien.” Seeing that Adrien was about to protest again, Gabriel interrupted before he could even start talking “It wasn’t an easy choice to make, please understand that much if nothing else. Adrien, look at me.”

 

“It took Nathalie presenting me with spreadsheets of all the ways I was getting everything wrong for me to see the damage I was doing to you. I refused to listen when you confronted me about it, then I got so angry when you went and tried to find a way around me and sought help from your friends that I went back on my word. I think I need to learn to let go a little, don’t you?”

 

“Where would I go?” Adrien scuffed his foot against the ground in the way he knew his father hated and Gabriel tried not to grimace.

 

“He’s downstairs. It’s about time the two of you met anyway.”

 

With a resigned sigh and a few nudges in the right direction, Adrien led the way back where he came from, half wondering why he’d needed to go all the way to his room just for that when his father could have just pushed him into the arms of whosever it was he was supposed to be living with now and said his goodbyes there. probably to avoid embarrassment in case he reacted badly. Maybe a bit to do with his fathers ingrained flair for the dramatics.

 

But Adrien didn’t have it in him to say no. He may be hurting over being sent away, but he could see the sense in it at least a tiny bit. He’d been the one who’d spent years fighting for every tiny scrap of freedom he could so why on earth would he deny what could possibly become his best bet yet? A fear of change? Well, so many things had changed recently that one more thing wouldn’t be the end of the world… probably. And his father wasn’t about to hand him over to someone he didn’t trust so it wasn’t like he had to worry about his safety and he’d even made it clear enough that he’d be welcome back if he wanted to and…

 

And his father had given him a choice and as much time as he could want to make it in.

 

That was new.

 

And terrifying.

 

He ended up hovering at the door of the parlour, the closest thing to a living room in the house. It was his father who ended up reaching past him to give the door one sharp rap and it was his father who pushed it gently open, but ultimately it was Adrien who stepped forwards into the room and set his eyes on the man before him.

 

He was younger than expected, blond like him but over a head taller with steely grey eyes that were just a shade too pale to be called blue. He’d been expecting some wizened old professor or a snooty business acquaintance, not a man who given a pair of coloured contacts could have passed for his older brother. The only thing that hinted at why his father would trust him with Adrien’s wellbeing was the way he held himself. Like someone had taken a rather large stick and-

 

Well. Maybe he should talk to the guy before making snap judgements.

 

“Hello.” Great. Good going. Adrien Agreste; master of communication. Now the new guy was staring at him like he expected him to grow a new head or maybe carry on talking and at that moment, one of those things seemed impossible and it wasn’t the first option.

 

His father saved him, a line he didn’t think he’d ever even think, and stepped in for his socially stunted child.

 

“Adrien, this is my half-sister’s son, your cousin. You’ll be staying with him for as long as you so desire.” He said, as if this whole ordeal was completely not his idea.

 

“Felix. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm not 100% happy with how my Gabe chose to deal with his issues but hey, at least we got some surprise quantic so there's always that. Other options for Adrien adoption crew were Mari, Chloe and Nathalie sneakily buying him an apartment/flat using money from his years of high profile modelling work but dammit someone needs to have a responsible adult around here and would Gabe really let him do those first two options and would Nathalie get away with doing the third? I saw my chance to rope in Felix and leapt at it.
> 
> i didn't have the full confrontation between gabe and Nat because i too have no idea what exactly would have been said but i trust Nat. I trust her so much that i let her do her own thing off screen. She managed it somehow, even if it was kind of a bad decision for more than a few reasons. Now both men have a chance to figure things out without accidentally escalating things. Also Felix. Did i mention Felix?


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After weeks of trawling through fan theories about the quantic kids, i made an executive decision to just do my own thing and keep the most commonly accepted names.... in other words:
> 
> *me, rubbing my grubby little mitts together gleefully* This is my town now
> 
> (For those who might not know; the quantic kids were originally planned for when the show was supposed to be 2d but were replaced by the small children we all know and love, you can watch the pv over on youtube)

To Adriens immense surprise, he wasn’t immediately ushered out the front door, never to return. Instead, it turned out that Felix would be staying the night since it was fairly late and he and his father needed to discuss what was going to happen in more detail.

 

Which had led to one of the most awkward dinners that Adrien had ever been witness to. Which was really saying something, since every dinner involving his father was at least a little awkward. It was really, really obvious that neither his father or Felix knew what to do while he was there. They needed to talk, but didn’t want to say what needed to be said in front of him. He wasn’t entirely sure why he’d been brought along. Maybe it was a last suffer kind of deal, hopefully with a better outcome than the biblical one. His father was unusually quiet, sombre even, while Felix was just looking at him every so often as if he was some puzzle that needed solving. To be fair, the guy had been yanked into the middle of their family drama.

 

“So… the food is… nice?”  Felix offered, looking at the specimen on the end of his fork dubiously, as if he half expected it to spring to life and attack him if he looked away or blinked. Adrien didn’t even know what it was that Felix was trying to eat, from the looks of it Felix didn’t either.

 

All three of them were eating something different. Which made sense since they’d gone out to eat at a restaurant. It wasn’t as flashy or sophisticated as he was used to, but it was still high end. Too stuffy to be called comfortable but at least the portion sizes were decent. Why They’d ended up there of all places seemed to confuse all three men. None of them seemed to be quite sure how they’d ended up sat in the corner, out of sight from all the other patrons, nor were they entirely sure how they’d ended up ordering. They’d just told the Gorilla that they were going out to eat and he’d taken them there. It wasn’t all that far away from the Agreste mansion, set next to a small massage parlour. He’d caught sight of a small Asian man in a Hawaiian print shirt watching them from the doorway as they’d walked in but had written it off. He wasn’t exactly a stranger to people staring. He only made not of it because of how garish his shirt was.

 

They all walked in and were led to their seats promptly by their waitress and… well, Adrien didn’t exactly remember what happened between then and their food arriving. Which… was _probably_ how two out of three blonds present ended up not knowing what the hell they were eating. Adrien didn’t mind much, his stew-like concoction tasted good and he wasn’t the fussiest eater to begin with. Gabriel had ended up with a simple steak dish. Felix was the unluckiest one, stuck with something that looked ominous and had the smell to match. Apparently it was a house special. He claimed it was some sort of fish dish and that it was surprisingly good but…

 

He was still looking at it like it was about to spontaneously re-animate, so Adrien didn’t quite believe him.

 

Felix cleared his throat, startling Adrien out of his reverie. He’d just been wondering if the fish dish could be akumatised and that had led to him thinking about how cool he’d look taking it down as Chat Noir at his lucky Lady’s side. “So Adrien,” he started, sharing a meaningful and loaded look with his father “I’m sure you’re worried about what’s going to happen in your immediate future.”

 

Felix Whatever-his-last-name-was? More like Felix Points-out-the-obvious. Of course he was worried. He was going to be living with a stranger who for all he knew could end up being worse than his father just because they were related. Apparently. He’d never actually heard of the man, his father never really talked about his family, so finding out he had a cousin was weird. Being told to go live with said cousin while his father went on a magical emotional journey of self-discovery or whatever was something else entirely.

 

“…Right. Well, I can assure you that there is no need to worry. Your father chose me as your guardian because it would cause the least disruption to your routines. You can still attend school as usual, of course, and from what I understand you’ll be able to perform your extra-curricular activities too. Though I will say, I won’t baby you. It’s entirely up to you what activities you choose to pursue.” Adrien blinked. Felix blinked back. Gabriel just barely held back the scowl that instinctively threatened to break free, but nobody noticed that. They were too busy slow blinking at each other.

 

“Okay…?” that almost sounded like he’d have freedom to do what he wanted. He had a sneaking suspicion that there was a catch hidden in there somewhere because really, why would someone like Felix agree to take in a perfect stranger just because an estranged family member asked them to? He seemed like the kind of guy who’d be quite happy with a book, silence and maybe a cup of tea to match, not someone who’d want him around to spoil the atmosphere. Maybe money, but again…. He didn’t seem the type.

 

Felix must have picked up on his wariness, at least if the amused twinkle in in his eyes were anything to go by. The guy seemed to be enjoying watching Adrien flail around trying to make sense of what was happening.

 

“Uncle, we’ll be out of your hair by lunchtime, I’ll have to show your son his new home so he can get on with any birthday celebrations he may have planned.” He followed it up with another pointed look, a dig at Gabriel own lack of plans for his only child’s 18th birthday. He had the good sense to look suitably cowed before muttering his agreement. Adrien tried not to think too hard about hearing his father actually _mutter._

 

He felt something bump against his leg, but when he looked down he didn’t see anything, not even the small trickster god he’ been expecting to see. Huh. Had Felix kicked him under the table or something? Not that he’d have any reason to, unless there was something he was supposed to be doing here, a cue he was missing. Maybe reassuring his father that he’d come back. He didn’t really want to be making any promises he might not keep though. But if it hadn’t been Plagg or Felix bumping him then there was a good chance that he’d just imagined it.

 

Where was Plagg anyway? He’d been in his jacket pocket most of the day and he wouldn’t have gone far without at least letting Adrien know somehow, and definitely not while he was surrounded by people in public.

 

Unless there was cheese involved, probably.

 

The rest of the meal went by just as awkwardly, with Felix occasionally saying something, Gabriel agreeing and Adrien watching on silently. Plagg was yet to return by the time they paid the bill, which was an event in itself. The waitress seemed to be attempting to simultaneously flirt with all three of them, and left what he assumed was her phone number on their receipt. Adrien would have laughed if he hadn’t been so put out by how weird it was. She’d seemed ageless herself, anywhere between twenty and forty by his reckoning, but since she was flirting with, respectively, a seventeen, a twenty something and a forty-three year old, he’d place his bets somewhere around the thirty mark, if not a little lower. Maybe twenty-five. Not that it mattered all that much since he was very much not interested. He was fairly certain that the entire staff force was secretly made up of robots anyway.

 

So the meal had been awkward, not for any reason other than flirting from an ageless lady waitress and the company present, but it had been awkward. Stilted conversations, food of dubious origin and just enough fanciness to take the edge off of anything that could be called ‘cosiness’, all that added with the inconvenient disappearance of a little black kwami (he was really hoping that he hadn’t left Plagg behind) and Adrien was just happy that he hadn’t knocked himself unconscious just to get a break from all the awkward vibes and flirty robot waitresses.

 

Plagg didn’t make his grand reappearance until the next morning, announcing his arrival by dumping half his cheese mountain on a sleeping Adrien’s face and whining loudly about how unfair life was until Adrien got up and shoved a particularly gooey wheel of camembert in his face just to shut him up. He hadn’t needed to use his alarm clock more than four times in the last year with Plagg around to launch cheese at him at ungodly hours. He was mad at the little kwami, his disappearing act meant that he hadn’t been able to go visit Mari the night before in his last scant few hours of childhood. He was an adult now. At least he’d been able to call her instead.

 

Oh sweet baby kittens it was his birthday!

 

It was also the day he was going to leave the only home he’d ever known possibly forever! He was still somehow exited by that thought! Even though he had Plagg whining at him and would probably smell like cheese for at least an hour even after he showered. Gross, but just for today he’d live with it. He even passed up on grilling Plagg on where the hell he’d been for the last twelve or so hours just to get that birthday shower and he didn’t even take too long to postpone the inevitable fact that at some point in the next couple of hours he’d be expected to pack the remainder of his belongings. Or at least, the important bits. He doubted he’d be bringing his rock wall along with him. It was almost time to haul his butt to who knows where. Nope, it was just a regularly timed shower and any extra time he may have taken was just to get the cheese completely off of him.

 

Because it was his birthday and nothing would get him down, he wouldn’t let it.

 

And his phone had been flooded with happy birthday texts, not just from his four immediate friends, but from nearly the whole class. If that wasn’t enough to put a smile on his face, he wasn’t sure what was.

 

Well, maybe Marinettes texts telling him to ‘get your fluffy butt round my place tonight if you want your gift on time’ as well as a good five lines of waffle that essentially boiled down to ‘sorry your butt probably isn’t fluffy, I just really want to give you this present you don’t have to come if you can’t’… yeah, that made his smile just that much wider.

 

He was just finishing getting ready, fresh from the shower and clad only in a towel, when _it_ happened.

 

“So are you going to stand there in that towel all day or are you going to let me help you pack?” Felix piped up out of nowhere, standing right behind him. Adrien hadn’t even heard the door open, and Plagg was sitting right out in the- not where he had been five seconds ago but was choosing that moment to hover just out of Felix’s line of sight instead of hiding like he was supposed to. Wonderful. It was like that little kwami was determined to reveal himself to the whole world.

 

Adrien only kept track pf Plagg as some sort of instinct, a lot like how a parent would track a mischievous child around the room without looking at them. Felix appearing so suddenly had spooked him good and proper, a startled yowl escaping him before he could reign it into something more human sounding. Felix just snorted.

 

“What do you think you’re going to do with that deodorant? Spray me to death?” He was, of course, referring to the tube of deodorant that Adrien was brandishing like a very tiny sword instead of using for its original purpose.

 

“Why couldn’t you have knocked like a normal person!?” Adrien half snapped, half yelped while still waving the not so offensive weapon at the interloper on his territory.

 

Felix didn’t grace him with an answer, too busy judging his room with a critical gaze that made Adrien worry that he was about to lower the air temperature with the coolness of his look alone.

 

“This is a real adventure playground you have here. A shame it’s just you here to use it.” He’d have thought that Felix was mocking him if it hadn’t been for a soft edge in his voice, like he understood what Adrien felt.

 

He was beginning to think that maybe Felix wasn’t a bad person.

 

Then he ruined it by snorting derisively “Stinks of cheese though.” If Adrien hadn’t been reeling from the sting of thehis very not true insult, no matter how much he liked to tease Plagg, since he always kept a window open and used more air freshener than was probably necessary, he might have heard whatever it was that Felix said next. As it was he didn’t hear his new guardian mutter about how much he hadn’t missed the smell of camembert. At least he heard Felix repeat his offer to help pack ‘just so he could get moved faster’.

 

Three hours and four suitcases was all it took to uproot his entire life. Three hours to pack all his belongings and unpack them again somewhere else. Plagg had to discreetly ground him again once or twice when he caught himself getting overly emotional over one of his birthday pens or a trinket from either of his parents that he’d thought he’d lost, but other than that, the process was oddly calming. He was still excited for the future, sure, but those pockets of sentimentality were enough to remind him of the reasons why he was leaving. It also gave him just the barest hint of emotional insight that quelled any residual anger that may have been brewing in him.

 

Leaving the Agreste mansion may not have been entirely his choice, but now that he was actually leaving, he found that he wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. Even if Felix seemed to wildly fluctuate between being sort of okay and being just as stuffy and aloof as he’d first assumed.

 

* * *

 

 

Chloe had been fuming away for the last twenty two hours, ever since her phone rang at such an inconvenient time. Really, she knew that she was one of Paris’s most beloved and respected citizens but surely people could learn when a girl just wants some time to herself? Just because she was alone with her best friend who may or may not be her girlfriend too (she was, but Paris wasn’t to know that). So she’d been in half a mind to throw the damn phone at the furthest wall possible and get back to business rather than deal with what she was sure was the newest in the long line of people queuing for any attention she could spare them.

 

In the end, when Sabrina grabbed her arm before she could launch the mobile, she ended up picking the phone up.

 

Maybe if she’d thought to check the caller ID she wouldn’t have been half as surprised to hear a familiar voice on the other end, even if she hadn’t heard from the caller in a long while.

 

“Hey Chloe, It’s Allegra.” The caller started, as if Chloe hadn’t seen the caller ID herself. which to be fair, she hadn’t. “So it turns out that I’m going to be staying at the hotel for a while now and thought that now would be a great time to catch up! Like how you’re doing at school and… stuff.”

 

The thing about Allegra was that she was always off somewhere doing something. It suited Chloe in some ways, letting her take the limelight with her boisterous and simply lovable natural charm while Allegra was away. Most people didn’t even know that they were related. Chloe loved Allegra, as much as she could possibly love a sister that she didn’t meet until she was 12. They got on well enough, when Allegra was actually around, which between her university courses in London and her near endless list of activities, wasn’t all that often.

 

“That’s wonderful! When do you arrive?” Chloe cooed, earning an odd and slightly hurt look from Sabrina, who felt rather like she’d just been dumped at the wayside.

 

“Funny that actually Sis…” The call cut out abruptly. Chloe frowned at her phone, wondering if she’d accidently pressed the wrong part of the screen somewhere along the line and ended the call just as Allegra was about to say something important.

 

But nope, a knock at the door had her whipping herself round and scooting a little further away from Sabrina just in time to see the door swing open and reveal Allegra Bourgeois in all her glory. A single pale blonde plait that fell to the small of her back and eyes so blue they almost looked purple, matching nicely with her lavender tank top.

 

Allegra was smiling, just barely, looking between her and Sabrina in a way that make her feel like a sample at the end of a microscope.

 

“Oh, you have company. It’s been so long Sabrina! How is your sister doing, she was just starting to walk last time I saw her right?” She also had the most selective memory known to man. Apparently she couldn’t remember to call ahead by more than ten seconds but she could remember all about her sisters ‘best friends’ infant sister.

 

“oh, uhm, she’s fine? That was a while ago though, she’s nearly three now.” Sabrina was looking at her wearily, she’d never really been the biggest fan of Allegra and her long absences.

 

Her darling sister just sauntered across the room and pulled a chair around to face the pair, neatly crossing one leg over the other and clapping her hands together, leaning forwards just slightly. “So, what have I missed? Those akuma things are still going, right? Tell me _all_ about them. Better yet, do you have a computer laying around I can use?”

 

That had all happened 22 hours ago, and Chloe was still fuming.

 

* * *

 

Claude was having a grand old time. Out of all his friends, who had collectively and not at all suspiciously decided to move from London to Paris at the same time for entirely different reasons (Excuses), he was the only one who didn’t actually speak French. He was English. Why would he have ever needed to learn French? He knew a bit of Spanish from high school and college and a few Spanish speaking friends who liked to laugh at how useless the Spanish he’d actually been taught was if he actually wanted to hold a conversation ever, but French? He could say hello, that was all.

 

It was a good thing then, that he happened to be excellent at miming, much to everyone’s dismay. He’d been practicing his technique for weeks, his conversations becoming an increasingly elaborate game of charades.

 

He hadn’t actually told anyone he knew some sign language, BSL was probably waaay different than the French equivalent, and where was the fun in that anyway? Besides, how many people could actually sign? He’d much rather make a fool out of himself in a way he found hilarious while he tried to pick up the local lingo.

 

But he was beginning to find that not everything could be solved by miming. For one thing, he was standing in a small bakery, having spent the last ten minutes desperately trying to describe his mother’s favourite pastry, something with a whole lotta cream and chocolate. She wasn’t there with him, but he could do with a taste of home. If he could ever find a way to get his message across, that was. 

 

The woman serving him was trying her best, all smiles and best guesses. How she wasn’t fazed he didn’t quite know, but it warmed his already pretty warm heart to know that she was humouring out of kindness rather than pity. He… felt like he should know her from somewhere though.

 

“Is this it dear?” She asked, presenting him with the exact thing he was looking for. He almost let out an excited squeal, barely holding it back in favour of jumping delightedly and nodding, barely registering the girl who’d just walked in. Maybe he’d give one to Fifi…

 

Holy heck there was a familiar face!

 

“Bridgette!” He yelled, his inside voice and silence both forgotten. The lady, Sabine according to her name tag (he assumed that was her name and not a French word because he was smart enough to know a name tag when he saw one), blinked in surprise and barely covered her laughter.

 

That… wasn’t the right Bridgette. That was like, a tiny Bridgette. An actual mirror image of what Bridgette had looked like maybe four years ago, but not actually the Bridgette he knew since this one was in fact, four years younger.

 

He hated looking like an idiot when he didn’t mean to, but he bore it with a smile.

 

“My bad.” He muttered in English, because he hadn’t miraculously learned the French language in the five days he’d been there. The girl just gave him a blank look before turning around and walking back from where she’d come from. He’d weirded her out in less than two words. He’d say it was a new record but… it was not a new record at all.

 

He was about to just grab the pastry and leave with his tail between his legs, a metaphorical tail because unlike _some_ people he was not prone to sprouting tails, when she returned, with the real, properly aged Bridgette in tow.

 

Bridgette was the same as he’d last seen her, a whole… A whole fortnight ago? Less? He didn’t know, but in those few days there had been absolutely no major changes and for that he was glad, since it would be a little awkward if she’d sprouted wings or something and hadn’t warned him. She was just the same as ever, ridiculously long and almost gravity defying pigtails and that one strand of hair that just refused to lie flat (he could have sworn that he’d seen it fold into a heart shape a few times, and knowing that girl the way he did, he probably hadn’t been hallucinating). For a moment she just looked around, obviously confused, until she made eye contact with him. She lit up like a bulb the moment she recognised him, grinning the patented Bridgette Cheng grin.

 

“Claude!”

 

She bounced into his arms and he picked her up and swung her round, maybe not as carefully as he should while handling a clumsy person in someone else’s bakery, but then he realised something upsetting.

 

His game was over. Bridgette would translate for him. He had just spent ten minutes of his life waving his arms around like an idiot when Bridge had been not thirty seconds away.

 

He had no regrets.

 

A single manly tear was shed in mourning of his excellent and now wholly unnecessary miming skills. Well, until he left. But he was, well, if superglue and velcro had a lovechild they’d name it after him. He stuck to things and people. Now that he’d found a friend, he was sure as hell going to stay by her side until not only had his welcome been outstayed, but had been rescinded and in need of renewal after a 30 day waiting period.

 

Little did he know that with the Dupain-Chengs, there was no such thing as overstaying a welcome. It was just a shame that he had plans for lunch, or they’d probably have ended up adopting him. He had the nagging feeling that he was forgetting something though. Something that he was supposed to be asking about.

 

* * *

 

 

Allan had spent his day jamming with his best bro Nino. They’d had a lot to catch up on, Nino had come on in leaps and bounds since their last jam session and he felt so proud he thought he might burst. The kid was gonna go far someday, was already well on his way if the plethora of competitions and trophies he’d won were any indication at all. Of course he was humble as anything about it, but he just knew that he was just as happy and aware as Allan was about how well he’d done for himself.

 

They weren’t related by blood, but they could easily be mistaken for brothers just for their looks. They’d met when they’d both entered a competition and had drawn for first place, had been friends ever since. He’d just come by to say hi while he was in the area. Or that was what he told Nino anyway. It could be difficult to keep in touch when there were a couple of hundred miles and a body of water between you and a friend, but the two of them had made it work for so long that the excuse was more than believable. It was worth coming for the previews to some of Nino’s projects alone if he was being honest, but he’d have probably come to see him even if he hadn’t had something he needed to do. He was just that great a guy. Nino that was, Allan wasn’t all that great himself, but he wasn’t evil or even particularly bad so he didn’t think too hard about it. That still didn’t mean that he was a pinnacle of virtue or whatever, he was very much a ‘if the ends justify the means then it’s fair game’ kind of guy.

 

“Hey bro, I really have to shoot off soon, mind if I check something on your computer real quick?”

 

“Yeah man no problem, you know where it is.” Nino agreed easily enough, he’d almost feel bad if what he needed to do wasn’t so important.

 

Nino didn’t even follow him to see what he was up to. The kid was too trusting. He’d be lucky if that trust didn’t get him in trouble one day. Then again, he’d never given him a reason not to trust him so he wouldn’t hold it against him. Not much anyway. He was nowhere near as bad as a certain mime he knew.

 

* * *

 

 

Alya was in the middle of squinting suspiciously at her phone around the time that all of this was happening. Something wasn’t quite right with the LadyBlog… something just seemed off and she couldn’t for the life of her figure out what it was. She’d been about to post an article speculating on the origins of the super duo when something had caught her eye. With a sigh, she decided to check on her laptop to see if anything was obviously wrong on a larger screen.

 

What she found was a nice new icon that she was about 900% sure that she hadn’t put there. An icon that appeared on her blog, her blog that she had 100% exclusive access to the coding for. A nice little icon that fit in perfectly with the rest of the blogs aesthetic. She probably wouldn’t even have noticed it if she hadn’t memorised the layout by heart inside out and upside down. But now that she had noticed it, it was just screaming ‘click me!’.

 

She wasn’t that stupid though, no matter how cute the little sparrow icon was. First, she pulled up the page that’d let her see the edits made to the web page, complete with timestamps.    

 

“What in the world…?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow i wonder what the totally not suspicious newcomers could be up to on the computers wouldn't it be funny if they were all working together haha imagine...
> 
> Also why are the big ones from London? because the pv had the most steampunk aesthetic hot damn and i can totally see parts of London being perfect for that (it helps that i myself am English and can be reasonably confident that i know my bearings if i ever start talking about where they came from)
> 
> real talk tho, the issue with writing about pre-established characters over any length of time is that your interpretation of them will evolve so i've been struggling with that (for example, Chat and Ladybug seem to be pun buddies in cannon but i haven't written it that way and im mourning the loss of many potential pun battles) 
> 
>  
> 
> [Come find me on tumblr!](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/dude-againjustwhy)
> 
> Warning: next chapter is me explaining my prolonged absence, actual chapter will be uploaded probably if not tomorrow!


	13. im a fool and here is why (also new chapter within 24 hours)

well, you may have noticed that i went from updating every fortnight to no update for months, well... yeah i messed up guys. i messed up so much.

cant remember all of why i stopped updating but ill try and explain what i do remember anyway.

first, uni got pretty crazy (still is, have 4 huge projects at once and my soul is hurting.

Second, i lost my notes for what happens next in all my fics. I only vaguely remember the details so forgive any future continuity errors, please. update: found a rough skeleton draft of some of my plans for this particular fic now i just have to figure out what they mean and how outdated they are with that i've written. It's something at least?

Third, went on a lovely trip to wales to visit family, left my laptop charger there. My laptop was at 6%. Brilliant, parents took 3 weeks to send it back to me.

Fourth, and damn do i mess up a lot, my microsoft subscription ran out by the time i got the charger back, all my files were trapped and it apparently wouldnt let me copy and paste into a different document.

Now that would have been less of an issue if i could have just renewed my liscence but then just to add insult to insult;

Five, my laptop stopped connecting to wifi without warning for over a month, then fixed itself two days ago, also without warning. no it was not on airplane mode.

so yeah, i'm finishing off the next chapter using open office (this chapter will be deleted and a shorter version added to the next chapters notes when its posted, hopefully tomorrow if not later today) and im going to have to re read all my fanfics to figure out what the heck i was planning on doing in the absence of my notes (i think i must have deleted the file somehow?) so updates after this chapter will be a little slow, but in no way as slow as the gap between this and the last chapter.

 

it has just now occured to me as i write this that i could have loaded the word files onto a memory stick and used literally any other computer. What an idiot. I made you all wait when there was such a simple answer right there in frint of me.

 

In other news i turned myself into the ultimate hipster by finding my favourite tea ever, a blend thats availiable for only the month of october from one shop 15 miles from me. Im drinking my last cup of it now while writing this from my phone (hence the awful grammar and general everything)

 

felt i owed readers an explanation at least, i know i messed up so hard and the next chapter will be up soon! i wouldnt have posted this otherwise! (my other fanfics will also be updated imminently). Im sorry for the wait, hope i can take the story in a direction that you'll enjoy at least :) 


	14. Chapter 14

 Felix could kill his friends sometimes. This was most definitely one of those times.

He’d spent the last week planning and preparing in case he was entrusted with Adriens care, ever since Nathalie had first contacted him. Then it had just been a ‘maybe, but be prepared’ situation, so of course he’d made everything just perfect. It wouldn't do to be caught off guard, especially not after being given warning. In fact, he'd been almost meticulous with making sure that his new home would be more than suitable for both Adrien and himself. He'd gone as far as to roughly plan how to handle their first few days together, a gentle introduction to a new environment. A few days left to wander around in peace until the boy was comfortable enough to call the apartment home, before Felix would slowly start to introduce aspects of his own social life. A friend or two at most to begin with, so as not to startle or ostracise him at all. He was trying hard not to treat his guest like a new pet cat, but having kept more pets than people, he found himself falling back on what he already knew.

And yet, all his carefully laid plans for a quiet, calm introduction to his new home were ripped apart within moments. He should have known something was amiss when he found his door unlocked.

“Felix!” a blue/black haired monster cried as she barrelled into him before the door was even halfway open.

“Adrien!” A shorter blue/black haired monster cried as she barrelled into the boy next to him.

“Hey, you’re here!” Someone further inside called out “Surprise!”

Felix was finding it difficult to breathe, what with being trapped in a tight embrace that was more a vice than anything else, but he still managed to eek out a strangled “What’s going on here?” before he finally managed to break free of Bridgette’s grip. She carried on grinning at him and shifted so she was standing with her arm looped through his. He allowed it.

“Haha, woah, you dudes look like you could be the same people.”

“Claude! Don’t be rude- oh hey you’re actually right?” Claude and Allegra came to join them at the door. Just what he’d always wanted, a welcoming committee. Of course he should have expected no less from his friends. They were hardly the sort of people to do things quietly.

He spared a glance towards where his new guest had been standing, only to find that he’d already been dragged further into his home by the tiny terror mk.2, leaving him woefully alone with both Claude and Allegra. Bridgette didn’t count, her constant presence at his side was anything but woeful. He’d be lying if he said he hadn’t missed her warmth in the fortnight that they’d been separated. It’d be another lie if he tried to say that he wasn’t glad to see her three days earlier than planned. He would in no way be lying if he said he wanted everyone bar her and Adrien to leave immediately. Just as he wouldn't be lying to say that he wished he'd have more opportunities to spend time together in the coming weeks, but they all had things to be getting on with and would be lucky if they'd be able to meet very much at all.

“Sooooo Fifi, you got something to tell us buddy? Fifi? … Hey! Don't just ignore me dude!”

Felix managed to shift pass them without answering Claude and followed Adrien and the girl, wondering where she’d taken him. The apartment wasn’t huge, not by his standards, but it was on the larger side considering that it was in the middle of a large city. The front door led directly into the lounge, so he could see straight away that neither of them were in there and he still had the keys to both bedrooms safe in his pocket, so that left either the main bathroom or the kitchen (unless she’d taken him to the one and only closet, which wasn’t something he'd even think to consider). Out of the two remaining options, the kitchen seemed much more likely.

“Why are there so many cakes?” was the first thing he found himself both wondering and vocalising. It really was quite the spread, not just cakes either. There were an unusual amount of croissants and macarons laid out on his counters.

“Oh my god Felix, you can’t just ask someone why they have so many cakes!” Claude laughed at his own joke, like he always seemed to do. No one else laughed. “Mari’s parents run an amazing bakery, you’d like it there!”

“And what makes you say that?” Felix remarked dryly, knowing that Claude knew of his tendency to stay away from sweet foods and how unlikely it was that he’d find himself willingly entering a Parisian bakery. Bakeries were dangerous places. He'd stay far, far away if he could help it.

“Bridge is staying there too!” Claude leant in and stage whispered, adding in an exaggerated wink to add to the humiliation. It did give Felix pause though.

“…I’ll consider it.” He eventually conceded after a (very) long moment of consideration.

He was fond of Bridgette, she was by far the most persistent of the group when it came to obtaining his friendship and without her he could say with total confidence that wouldn’t be half the man he was today. She was more dear to him than any language could begin to describe. Maybe it showed exactly how soft he was for her that the mention of her presence would make him willingly enter somewhere he’d otherwise avoid like the plague.

Adrien was only moments away from smearing a cake in the girls (Mari’s?) face when Felix finally looked back to him, just in time to watch Claude pelt the boy with a cushion stolen from the living room.

“Be nice! She brought cake!” Claude scolded, trying to appease the food source.

“Yeah Adrien, I brought the cake!” She huffed, flicking his nose. Only after Bridgette translated for her, presumably the girl didn’t speak much English, or not enough to keep up with a native English speaker like Claude. Felix could switch between the two like it was almost nothing. He imagined that she must have been feeling rather lost when they’d first arrived, they'd been speaking in English out of sheer habit. Unless she did speak english and Claude just couldn’t be understood by her through his mouthful of food, which was also a possibility.

Felix could see the impending threat things escalating, and where he’d usually just walk away from such ridiculous antics, this instance had the unfortunate coincidence of threatening to occur within his own home, where he would no doubt be finding crumbs and icing for days to come, so he was forced to put a stop to it before it could begin. Really, they were all adults, why on earth would they do something as childish as start a food fight? Especially one in his new place.

“Guys, don’t start that. It’s Fifi’s new home, don’t wreck it!” Allegra intervened before he could, pretending to be the voice of reason even as she swiped the cake straight out of Adrien’s hand and walked away with it almost daring someone to intervene, licking it for good measure.

To curb the chaos, he was forced to call in the bug gun. He sent a pleading look to Bridgette, who nodded back at him before detaching herself from his arm and placing herself bodily between everyone else and the food. He didn’t even try to pretend that he didn’t instantly miss the contact. A worthy sacrifice indeed, her warmth at his side for the continued cleanliness of his kitchen. She sent a glare towards Claude and Adrien, the two main culprits before announcing in perfect French (of course, she was a native French speaker).

“Okay! We all came here to throw a welcoming party for Felix and Adrien, so who’s up for watching a film?”

“Nah, not really my jam. You unpacked your consoles yet Fifi?” Allan asked, strolling in from who knows where, draining a coffee cup from the café across the road.

“Allan, I’ve been here three days. Of course I have.”

“Nice.” With that, he disappeared again, no doubt back into the lounge to set up whatever game he chose. Felix would have no complaints, Allan had impeccable taste in video games, if nothing else. So that left either going somewhere else to watch a film or joining in with Allan, which was always a dangerous thing to do. Allan was fine on his own, but combined with anyone else he became… something else. He once started aggressively beatboxing while wrestling him for dominance over the player one remote just to annoy Felix into giving up. The experience had been so surreal that it'd somehow worked. Allan was a solo player. End of conversation. Nobody could beat him, no matter how hard they tried. Allan knew this. They all know this. Allan was trying to kick them all out.

Felix may have lost more than just his dignity the day he finally gave up trying to beat Allan. He refused to speak of it.

“Okay… so… what now?” Allegra winced, visibly restraining herself from lecturing Allan on his rudeness. Felix wasn’t entirely sure on what the mans motives were but from the way Claude suddenly lit up, he could safely say that they were partners in crime.

“Let’s go on a tour! Scope out all the local digs.”

“Not right now Claude, we came here for a welcome party remember?” Allegra gently reminded him, causing Allan to let out a small, annoyed groan and Claude's enthusiasm to visibly wilt.

“Claude, for something that you came up with, that sounds surprisingly agreeable. Maybe another time.” Felix conceded, if only to get the pitifully sad look off his face. It earned him a small but happy smile, which was good enough.

One after another they all turned towards Allan, who shrugged and muttered something that sounded a lot like “I’ll just do it later I guess.”

“What films did you bring dude?” Claude questioned, not so subtly pinching Allan’s’ arm until he gave up dominance of the television, their plan having obviously failed.

Felix took a moment to think, he'd left a considerable amount of his belongings behind in England with family (his aunt was more than happy to help). He knew he'd brought a decent amount of films along with him, if only he could remember where he left them. His boxes were only half unpacked. He hadn’t gotten round to unpacking much more than his consoles and games in this room.

“They should be in the box by the shelf.” He only spoke once he was sure. The box was plain all round but looked vaguely familiar. He’d been meticulous in labelling all the boxes he’d packed. His aunt, who’d done her best trying to help, hadn't.

As usual, he found himself being right, and so began the age old squabble of what to watch. A few snickers were sent in his direction at how many romcoms he had, he did an excellent job of ignoring them. The group stopped bickering abruptly when Adrien suggested a disney classic, the aristocats. The boy just looked so innocent and pleading, nobody could have said no to a face like that. Nobody. Not even Allan.

They all piled onto and around the sofa, Felix and Bridgette curling up together on the armchair. Allan was sat next to Adrien who was sat next to the clone with Allegra and Claude in the floor on a pile of cushions they’d pulled from another box, despite how there was still plenty of space on the sofa.

He honestly wasn't even surprised when only twenty minutes after they settled on their plans, two more people joined their group. They announced their arrival with a ring of a buzzer.

The first was a pretty girl with glasses and red brown hair, who slipped herself in beside the clone. She was accompanied by a boy who reminded him a little too much of Allan for comfort, from his general appearance down to the headphones looped around his neck. He sat himself next to the girl, perching on the arm of the sofa and making the tiny, house proud voice in his head that sounded almost exactly like his grandfather start screaming. He made a point of picking at the arm of the armchair until a tiny scratch appeared, just to spite it.

They both were friends of Marinette (he knew he’d have to start addressing her by name at some point, may as well start somewhere) and Adrien who ‘wanted to make sure their friend was in safe hands’, as if the boy was incapable of looking after himself. Felix only held back on commenting because Adrien seemed so happy to see them and given the environment the boy was coming from, he could hardly blame them for wanting to check upon him. That didn't stop Allegra from pouting and shooting the two newbies a look, plus another for Marinette since she was the most likely suspect for inviting them. It was a glare undeserved, since he hadn't seen her touch her phone since he arrived.

And so Felix officially tuned himself out of the groups antics, pretending to focus on the film. He didn't function well as part of a crowd, the usual suspects were about his average people limit. He'd send the occasional pleading glance towards Bridgette, hoping that she'd magically summon an excuse for him to leave, to no avail. He was all out of luck when it came to slinking away. He vaguely heard Allan and the boy start talking, something about not expecting to run into each other so soon, but he was mostly focused on the emotional tale of Dutchess, the three kittens and O’Mally.

About twenty minutes in Allegra got called away to a meeting of some sort, dragging Claude out along with her. Allan followed them of his own accord. They paused the film just long enough to say their goodbyes.

That left himself, Adrien, Bridgette and Adrien’s three friends, which wasn't too many people for him to deal with.

“I'll go grab the rest of the food!” Marinette called over her shoulder, already halfway back to the kitchen. Felix hadn’t given himself much of a chance to properly eat earlier, but didn't want to come across as rude by refusing to eat any of the sweet treats.

He forced himself to pick up a chocolate croissant, it shouldn’t be too bad. Not really.

“So, Felix right? What brings you all to Paris?” Alya questioned, she asked it in a way that he half expected her to pull a notepad and pen from her pocket and start taking notes, but she settled on fixing him with a soul piercing stare. She was suspicious of something, that was for certain. He took a bite from his croissant,while he mulled over how to answer without giving anything away. Wrinkling his nose slightly at the sweetness of the pastry, he chewed even slower. It was delicious and he hated it.

“I came for… personal reasons, Bridgette came to spend time with her family and find work. As for the others, I’m not entirely sure. Allegra has some family locally too but As for Claude and Allan… I honestly have no idea why they came along. They're both artists of sorts, if that clears anything up. Anything else?”

“Personal reasons huh?” She mused, more to herself than him. “What do you mean ‘musicians of sorts’?” At least she didn't try to pry any further about his life. That was a whole kettle of fish he had no intention of getting into with a total stranger, even if she was friends with his new flatmate.

He cast a glance over to Bridgette, who picked up on his silent message and took over the talking for him.

“Well, Claude is an actor mostly, but he can draw and paint really well too! Allegra is a classical musician for the most part and Allan-”

“He’s a DJ! You know the dude I chat online with sometimes?” Nino cut in, grinning at the girl. Three sets of eyes widened simultaneously. Judging by the beaming grin on his face, Nino knew exactly what reaction he’d get out of the others.

“Wait, that guy was-?”

“Yeah!”

“Woah.” Adrien sighed, sneakily making a grab for the remote to carry on playing the film. Felix made no moves to stop him. They'd only made it to the part where the cruel butler tried to get rid of the cats for the second time.

They all settled down once the film went back on, Bridgette curling up beside him. At some point his arm worked its way around her waist, as usual she made no objection, wrapping both her arms around his middle in return.

He felt comfortable, more comfortable than he had in days.

“... Okay I’m confused. Are you two a thing? You look like a thing.” Adrien finally spoke, from the way four sets of heads swivelled to watch his reaction, he wasn’t the only one questioning.

“I don’t know.” Felix shrugged, not looking down at the bright blue eyes he could feel were gazing up at him. He wasn’t sure exactly what he’d see if he looked down. “We could be.”

Part of him wondered why his business was being brought up so much, but given how he and Bridgette were currently wrapped around each other like a bean plant around a pole, he could at least appreciate why his love life became a topic of discussion.

He felt Bridgette shift, just enough to give him a gentle squeeze without being too obvious to the others.

“I’ll tell you a little of it later Mari, I think me and Felix should work things out in our own time.” Felix supposed that meant he had to do the same for Adrien. It had been the plan anyway, eventually. Well, Bridgette was the smarter one of the two of them when it came to dealing with people.

 

  
Bridgette was screaming internally. She shouldn't have said that. She really shouldn’t have said that.

Hearing Felix say ‘we could be’ had sent her into a spiral of internal screeching and torment. If course they ‘could be’ something! The only reason they hadn’t slapped a label on their relationship was because Felix wasn’t ready, not so soon after everything that happened, but then he had to go and say that they ‘could be’ something and then she had to go and open her mouth and tell her cousin that she’d tell her stuff that she hadn’t wanted to tell her until she really had to and-

And it was nobody's fault. Shush brain, she scolded herself, nobody’s fault. Not hers not Felix jr.’s and not Felix’s. Besides, they were bound to let it slip eventually right? Right! There was no use in hiding anything, no use at all!

So now she had to tell her cousin, who she hadn’t seen in who knows how long, sensitive information about her life, all while her partner had to do the same. All because it was part of the plan, a plan she’d come up with. Okay.

A gentle squeeze at her side snapped her out of her little panic.

“Are you okay?” Felix questioned, face showing nothing but pure concern. That was enough to cheer her back up instantly. She felt him relax a little when she smiled up at him.

Bridgette didn’t particularly love the aristocats as a film, but Felix’s enthusiasm for all things cat related at least let her appreciate it a bit more than before.

The film eventually finished, Felix and Adrien both a little teary eyed (dorks, she thought). It was with a disappointed sigh that she realised that she and Mari would need to get back to the bakery. It really was a shame the others had to leave so early, she had no clue when she’d get to see them all again what with them all having actual responsibilities now, but they’d been having fun! They’d eaten all the food and watched a film together and hung out like they always used to, and they had the added bonus of three new faces!

Reluctantly, she pried herself free from Felix, stretching in her seat before hopping up.

“Time to go Mari!”

Mari groaned in protest, wiggling further into her spot with absolutely no intention of getting up. Bridgette, seeing a potential argument arising, marched over to her and hefted her effortlessly over her shoulder. The other three kids eyes widened in awed surprise.

“Nice to finally meet you Alya, Mari talks about you so much! And Adrien, look after Felix for me, take care now Nino, bye everyone!” She called out over her shoulder as she left, Felix escorting her to the door. Behind her she heard Alya and Nino say something about leaving themselves.

“Bye Felix! Can I call you later or will you have your hands full?”

“Bridgette, you know I’ll always make time for you.” His voice was soft, but firm enough to say that he was offended she’d even had to ask.

They spent a moment just smiling at each other before she remembered that she was carrying her cousin, and that said cousin would probably want to be put down at some point soon.

She only let Mari down once they were free of the building. Bridgette half expected Mari to sulk and scold her but surprisingly she didn’t, only snickering and knocking into her side as they walked back towards the bakery together.

It was chilly out, overcast and cloudy. Everything had a distinctly grey tinge to it. She could have sworn the weather had said it’d be a nice day out earlier but… well, living in England hadn’t given her the highest of standards for what counted as nice weather. If it wasn’t awful then it was probably good enough for her.

“Bridgette! What was all that about?”

“It was time to leave!”

“Nooo, you don’t say?” Mari drawled, swinging herself around a lamppost as she passed. “I meant why didn’t you tell me about Felix before if you know him so well? And how come he’s looking after Adrien? Don’t try and tell me it’s a coincidence either!” Bridgette snapped her mouth shut, having been about to say exactly that.

“I’ll tell you when we get back!”

And she would! Or, would have done if a flock of screaming civilians hadn’t crossed their path, the universal signal of ‘akuma nearby, go somewhere else’.

She turned on her heel and walked away, dragging Mari along behind her. Once she’d been walking for a minute and the screaming had subsided to a background noise, she pulled them both into a secluded alley, out of sight from anyone passing by.

She put on her best ‘I totally and completely mean what I am saying’ face and turned to face Mari.

“I’m going to go find out what’s happening, don’t go anywhere. I’ll be back after the akuma's gone. Stay here. Under no circumstances should you leave this alley. However, if I come back and you’re not here, I’ll meet you back at the bakery.”

Without another word, she left, walking somewhat in the vague direction from where they came. And that was that.

It was up to Ladybug and Chat Noir to do the rest of the work. She had no doubt that they’d do just fine.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was partially written from my phone so i'm praying it's fine, wordcount seems a little shorter than usual but eh, i can't force words to be where words dont want to be.
> 
> Nex update might take a while since i need to figure out exactly where i was going with this, if theres anything i messed up between the last chapter and this please let me know so i can fix it! Cant fix what you dont know is wrong after all :)


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